





- 

SHOP'S * VW % 

c ~^> ^ V- * ^ s s «^0 <f y 0 « X * A w <5/ ^ 

* °- 0°' AA% ^ A .‘ IT % A 



A '<* 

fej* -V -.* 

*n ■> ■v v 

3 f ^ 

; >* ,o° 

0 > ^*0, 

» * - <s 5* * V 



O </- 

■; <r> .v’ 


■-;<■. A'i 


rv 



a x * ^Va ' 


* 

~ *?W** J- *■%. W 

* ^.„, V '»K«’ 


........ «* A V t/> 

\\V >. AV </>. - *u , 

>> h\y * <y * _> 

7 • v aO 


Vvas^ #"*+ 

,a a ^^s 4 / <■ *'»\ a a 

° No * '-o. ** 0 o ./ a 0 ” 0 * 

1 " " " f . ^ 4 





^ ^ - 0 




° <* <A> 

° ^ <$ ; 
$> ^ 


^ * 




<V * Y * 0 A 'c> 


\ A 


a <? 


* ^ °;¥jc 

ia ' i> & 

s 0 x y » ~ ■ 

, 0 V v* 

V > .s 




aV t 

A “’^Y 


\ 1 h 


^ i ? ; < 

0 o y >• 0 ^ 



* • , . 0 ; %^\>< , . . , ; „ 

‘ v v -^- v 'V^ :£tok\ % 



V*a 7 o’’/ ^ 0 ~°* i . ' * ff 

,O v * V * 0 A o 

- A - -^„a % 

° H 



fr * 


<1 /> 

O <V> ^ O 

A / A 

s . , C 7 0 * X * 

^ v 1 8 * <£ 

-1 'p 

+ ^ v 4 



* ,\V 

</> ^ 

^ *• *4 

'A 

•>\ i 

r^ X 

<\ 

o 

> c 0 * 

c * 7 o 

* c^> 

fN x 

* c ^o- 

ur% ^ 

l ■ .Au< r 



1 « *'>&*? 

K °°<. 


S ' ' 

O 0 




V <'X 


















n 

Xovell’s flnternational Series 


50 Cents 



'he Freaks of Lady 
Fortune 


BY 

MAY CROMMELIN 


Author of “Violet Vyvian, m. f. h.,” “Goblin Gold,” Etc v 


cAnthori^ed Edition 

i 


/ 



NEW YORK 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 

150 Worth Street, corner Mission Place 

Every work in this series is published by arrangement with the author. 


Issued Weekly. Annual Subscription, $15.00. June 23, 1891. 
Entered at New York Post Office as second-class matter. 


LOVELLS 

INTERNATIONAL SERIES 

OF 

MODERN NOVELS. 


The new works published in this excellent Series, Semi-Weekly, are alwaysi 
the first issued in this country. 

Every issue is printed from new, clear electrotype plates, on fine paper 
and bound in attractive paper covers of original design. 


RECENT 

No. Cts. 

40. Young Mr. Ainslie’s Court- 

ship. F. C. Philips... 30 

41. The Haute Noblesse. Geo. 

ManviileFenn 30 

42. Mount Eden. F. Marryat.. 30 

43. Buttons. John S. Winter. .. 30 

44. Nurse Revel’s Mistake. 

Florence Warden 30 

45. Arminell. S. Baring-Gould . 50 

46. The Lament op Dives. Wal- 

ter Besant 30 

47. Mrs. Bob. John S. Winter. . 30 

48. Was Ever Woman in this 

Humor Wooed. C. Gibbon. 30 

49. The Mynn’s Mystery. Geo. 

ManviileFenn 30 

50. Hedri. Helen Mathers 30 

51. The Bondman. Hall Caine.. 30 

52. A Girl op the People. L. T. 

Meade 30 

53. Twenty Novellettes. By 

Twenty Prominent Novelists 30 

54. A Family Without a Name. 

Jules Verne 30 

55. A Sydney Sovereign. 

Tasma 30 

56. A March in the Ranks. Jes- 

sie Fothergill 30 

57. Our Erring Brother. F. W. 

Robinson 30 

58. Misadventure. W. E. Norris 30 

59. Plain Tales from the Hills 

Rudyard Kipling 50 

60. Dinna Forget. J. S. Winter 30 

61. Cosette. K. S. Macquoid... 30 

62. Master of His Fate. J. Mac- 

laren Cobban 30 

63. A Very Strange Family. F. 

W. Robinson 30 

64. The Kilburns. A. Thomas. 30 

65. The Firm op Girdlestone. 

A. Conan Doyle 50 

66. In Her Earliest Youth. 

Tasma 50 

67. The Lady Egeria. J. B. 

Harwood 50 

68. A True Friend. A. Sergeant 50 

69. The Little Chatelaine. The 

Earl of Desart 50 


ISSUES. 

No. Cts* 

70. Children op To-Morrow. 

William Sharp 30 

71. The Haunted Fountain and 

Hetty’s Revenge. K. S. j 
Macquoid 30 

72. A Daughter’s Sacrifice. F. 

C. Philips and P. Fendall. . . 50 

73. Hauntings. Vernon Lee 50 

74. A Smuggler’ sSecret. B arrett 50 

75. Kestell op Greystone. Es- 

me Stuart 50 

76. The Talking Image op Urur. 

Franz Hartmann, M.D 50 

77. A Scarlet Sin. F. Marryat.. 50 

78. By Order op the Czar. 

Joseph Hatton 50 

79. The Sin op Joost Avelingh. 

Maarten Maartens 50 

80. A Born Coquette. “ The 

Duchess” 50 j 

81. The Burnt Million. J. Payn 50 

82. A Woman’s Heart. Mrs. 

Alexander — 50 

83. Syrlin. Ouida 50 

84. The Rival Princess. Justin 

McCarthy and Mrs. C. Praed 50 

85. Blindfold. F. Marryat 50 

86. The Parting of the Ways. 

M. Betham-Ed wards 50 

87. The Failure op Elisabeth. 

E. Frances Poynter 50 

88. Eli’s Children. G. M. Fenn 50 

89. The Bishops’ Bible. David 

C. Murray and II. Hermann 50 

90. April’s Lady. “The Duchess” 50 

91. Violet Vyvian, M.F.H. May 

Crommelin 50 

92. A Woman op the World. F. 

Mabel Robinson 50 

93. The Baffled Conspirators. 

W. E. Norris 50 

94. Strange Crimes. W.Wesrall 50 

95. Dishonored. Theo. Gift. . . . 50 

96. The Mystery op M. Felix. 

B. L. Farjeon 50 

97. With Essex in Ireland. 

Hon. Emily Lawless 50 

98. Soldiers Three and Other 

Stories. Rudyard Kipling 50 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE 







































































• 

4 









































































































































































- 

. 




















Xovcirs IFnternattonal Series, 1 Ho. t(5S 


THE FREAKS OF LADY 
FORTUNE 



MAY CROMMELIN 

AUTHOR OF 

“VIOLET VYVIAN, M. F. H.,” “GOBLIN GOLD,” ETC. 


Authorised Edition 



JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 

I50 WORTH ST., COR. MISSION PLACE 


,CrnF^ 


Copyright, 1891, 

BY 

UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER I. 

OAKS — oaks ! Only a forest of oaks in their freshest 
spring foliage to be seen for miles, while between the 
trees long grassy rides ended hazily in soft blue vistas 
Here, an open glade where the emerald bracken fronds 
were still uncurling, there a deep woodland valley 
which a sapphire shower seemed to have sprinkled, 
because it was scattered thickly with wild hyacinths 
that grew taller and thicker yet in the shade of the 
woods behind. 

Between two English rivers lies this sylvan scene. 
The one river is the broad Severn, rolling its silver 
flood to meet the salt tide from up-channel, while low, 
verdant pastures spread wide on either bank as it 
glides past old Gloucester town. The latter, with its 
beautiful Norman cathedral and quaint streets, is full 
of old-world memories. There stands the New Inn, 
with its wooden galleries, a hostel first built to lodge 
pilgrims flocking to worship at murdered King 
Edward’s shrine ; and yonder, close to the hallowed 
precincts of his own minster, brave Bishop Hooper 
was tied to an elm-tree and burnt with green faggots 
in the name of religion. 

The other and smaller stream, bounding the forest 
of oaks on the western side, is the winding Wye, that 
most beautiful border-river of Wales, flowing gaily 
Severnwards between precipitous gorges, while the 


I 


2 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


high cliffs, rising like ivy-covered ramparts of ancient 
castles on either side, are crowned with thick woods 
revelling in tints of every shade of verdure, from that 
of the light, feathery ash to the stout oaks and beech, 
and, lowest and sturdiest of all, the almost black-green 
lines of ancient yews, some nigh a thousand years old, 
and marking in their growth, say the miners, the vein 
of iron hid in the soil beneath. 

For this is the royal forest of Dean, covering the 
high and hilly ground between these two rivers, a 
noble forest existing in the days of the Confessor — 
and who knows how long before? — prized by the 
stem Conqueror who hunted here the tall red- deer he 
loved ; while its oaks have been the pride of royal 
foresters ever since the days of the Virgin Queen to 
those of our present Empress-Mother, carefully kept 
to build the floating walls of our island, the great 
men-of-war whose crews too have ever had leal hearts 
of oak. 

The long, sweet, May afternoon was growing late, 
as a young girl, holding a little lad by the hand, 
wandered down one of the forest roads leading into a 
pleasant valley, wherein the evening sunlight cast a 
golden haze. 

She was tall of stature and wonderfully erect and 
graceful in figure, with an elastic step and good car- 
riage rarely to be seen in one so poorly dressed— for 
her black gown was coarse, faded to a rusty brown, 
much mended and darned ; but the small head the 
. girl carried proudly on her slender neck, was verily a 
golden dowry. 

Her face was exquisitely fair, with a skin as soft 
and milky-white as the may-flower, just deepening to 
a wild -rose tint on her cheeks. Her delicately-marked 
eyebrows were drawn with such a dark but peculiarly 
slight curve, just redeeming them from absolute 
straightness, that the greatest painter might in vain 
have sought to render that perfect limning. Below 
these brows eyes of such a glorious rich brown looked 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


3 


out in liquid light at the glad spring world around, 
that the colour of this fair wood-nymph’s hair was a 
strange contrast. 

For, instead of owning locks of any shade of brown, 
from darkest hue to hazel, chestnut, or Titianesque 
auburn, as might have been expected, this maiden was 
crowned with gold ; her tresses were yellow, like ripe 
corn. It was wonderful hair, because so unusual in 
tint. It was neither lint-white nor flaxen, nor ever so 
faintly tinged with red. But it was of that pure, 
shining gold one may see on the breast of a golden 
Chinese pheasant, and was indeed not unlike the 
plumage of a bird in its glossiness and thickness and 
a certain changeableness of hue in different lights, as 
the iris deepens and brightens from grey to burnished 
blue on the wood-dove’s neck. 

An English girl certainly, despite her glowing brown 
orbs ; fair as one of those young Anglian angels 
blessed by the good pope in days of old. 

But the little lad who held her hand closely, and 
often gazed up in his elder sister’s face, was olive- 
complexioned and dark of hair and eyes as any child 
of the sunny south. And, while the tall maiden looked 
as though she could have hunted in Diana’s train all 
day through the woods with untiring fleetness, the 
boy was frail and puny, with a face pinched and pale 
and unnaturally old in expression for his tender 
years. 

Presently the girl stopped short. 

“ It is growing late, dear ; we will not go any 
farther down there,” she said persuasively, in a rich, 
full voice. “ See, Bino, we have such a quantity of 
flowers already ! ” 

A large and heavy basket indeed, almost overladen 
with fragrant wild hyacinths, hung on her arm. Her 
old battered straw hat, round and untrimmed as those 
of the peasant-women of the forest, had fallen down 
on her shoulders, held by a faded blue ribbon round 
her neck. 


4 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


« No, no, Guelda ; you promised me a long walk for 
a treat on my birthday— and you always say you 
keep your word ! ” urged the child, reluctant to turn 
back from a delightful ramble. 

“ We must be going home soon indeed,” the sister 
caressingly rejoined, with a slightly anxious air. 

“ Come, dear— I have brought you miles* farther than 
you ever were before — farther into the forest than I 
have ever been myself, and we may lose our way 
going home.” 

“We can meet Eli Rastrick and his cart at the 
cross-roads. Only just a little farther — I want to get 
to that great bank of blue-bells, nearly a mile of them, 
that we saw across the valley ! ” pleaded the little 
fellow, tightening his grasp of his sister’s hand so 
lovingly it was not in her heart to refuse him ; and yet 
she knew he would then want to gather more and more 
of the fragile lovely blossoms, and her arms ached 
with the load of those she already carried, besides the 
remains of their mid-day meal that she must carefully 
take back to eke out a scanty supper. 

“Come, then,” she said, suppressing a little sigh as 
she granted the boy his wish. 

The grassy glade wherein they stood was all nibbled 
close as any lawn by the troops of branded sheep 
which wander, unwatched and unchecked by fence, 
through most portions of the forest. Round the edge 
of this glade trees had been felled, leaving stumps 
about which young shoots had sprung up thickly. 
But these were now browsed by the greedy sheep 
likewise into symmetrical rounded bushes, giving 
here, as often elsewhere in the forest, an odd, shrub- 
bery-like effect to the borders of the roads. 

Two of these large leafy clumps grew close to the 
spot where Guelda and her brother had halted. As 
the girl and little boy moved past them, they suddenly 
perceived two men lying on the grass, stretched full- 
length and apparently resting. 

Now the sight of human beings was so rare qd that 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


5 


lonely road, where one might walk for miles without 
seeing any soul save a stray miner, or perhaps a carrier 
bound for one of the forest villages, that the child 
started nervously and pressed closer to his sister. 
But next instant, as his large black eyes stared with 
curiosity full at the strangers, he announced in a loud 
and audible whisper : 

“ Don’t be frightened ; they are only tourists ! ” 

Guelda had herself given a shy swift glance at the 
strangers. She saw two young and handsome men 
gazing with some amusement and surprised admira- 
tion— though that she was too much a novice to 
recognise as yet — at the young girl who passed 
quickly by with her head held so high, and a fearless 
but grave air, looking straight ahead now. For the 
free foresters from time immemorial have been a 
lawless set ; and the miners’ villages, scattered over 
hill-sides or valleys among the trees, like squatters’ 
dwellings in some new country, had been too often 
the scene of quarrels, riotous ways, and evil doings. 
She had never yet been insulted on their own side of 
the forest ; but here she and her little brother were 
unknown. With a thankful tremor in her voice, this 
daughter of the woods said, when out of earshot : 

“ I think, Bertrand, they were gentlemen.” 

Both reached the blue-bell bank soon, where the 
valley dipped into shadow. What a sight was there ! 
For some hundred yards stretched a gorgeous bank 
of delicately up-poised sapphire flower-bells. A 
million million chimes might have rung there o’ 
nights, when spring zephyrs blew, to listening fairy- 
like ears. And what a glorious celestial gladness of 
colour — darkly, beautifully blue, shading to violet 
under the tree-depths ? The contrast of that refresh- 
ing tint, as of heaven’s divinest depths, with the new 
green earth around, gave a sense of rare enjoyment. 

Soon both the little fellow and his tall sister were 
busy gathering armfuls of hyacinths, piling them ever 
higher in the great basket. Guelda was working* 


6 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


thrd, yet somehow she was aware of a lurking 
haought all the while that she should be glad to be at 
home that night, when her small brother would be in 
bed and asleep and she herself free. Then she might- 
be able to sit still a little while and recall that 
stranger’s face. Her hasty passing glimpse had taken 
in two men’s faces, but memory only now recalled the 
one. 

“ He is like the picture of Guido Reni’s St. Michael 
in my little book of devotions — such a noble, beautiful 
face ! ” thought the girl. The picture in question was 
but a poor wood-cut in a little Italian book that had 
belonged to her dead mother. 

After Guelda and little Bertrand had gone by, one 
of the two resting wayfarers, a pleasant-looking 
young man enough, gave a low whistle, then 
exclaimed : 

“ What a nymph, Ronald ! Is not that the prettiest 
face ever you saw in your life ? What poaching free 
forester, or what miner stained like a red Indian with 
iron grime, can own that stately young beauty for his 
daughter ? ” 

“None,” replied the other, whom Guelda had 
designated as St. Michael in her heart. “ She is a 
dream,” he added dreamily himself, while his lips 
formed a lazy smile, as he lay back once more on the 
grass with one arm thrown under his handsome head. 
“ I feel as if we were in the Forest of Ardennes, and 
seeing visions of fair Rosalind masquerading in the 
greenwood.” 

“ Tut, man — she is live flesh and blood enough ! 
But who can she be ? ” impatiently retorted his more 
practical companion. “ Did you see her dress ? A 
darn, the whole of it. And her clod-hopper boots ; 
though, if her feet are like her hands, I’ll swear 
they are as small as those of Lady Ermyntrude 
herself.” 

. “ Enough, dear old fellow ! I have settled irre- 

vocably in my own mind she is not of common clay. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


7 


‘ This is the prettiest low-born lass that ever ran 
upon the greensward.’ Whatever strange history 
hers may be, I cannot guess as yet ; but I trust to 
find out, for she is surely of no vulgar birth.” 

“ As how, may one enquire ? ” 

“ By following them presently, and asking our way, 
which we must have lost, besides some few questions 
concerning the forest. Curiosity is allowable in ‘only 
tourists.’ ” 

“ And yet you are lying there as composedly as if 
you meant to stay for ever ; or as if she would stay 
for us.” 

“ Calm yourself, my dear Islay. She is staying 
down there, gathering more wild hyacinths — they 
said so. When I have finished this very good cigar 
of yours they will not be so alarmed by our appear- 
ance as she might be if we were to start off in 
immediate pursuit.” 

“ Most subtle diplomatist ! But you will not have 
long to make hay while the sun shines. I desired the 
grooms to meet us with the dog-cart at the cross- 
roads. Are you grateful now that your laziness was 
tempted for once into walking a few miles to admire 
the beauties of the forest? You have seen one more 
than you expected,” said the less handsome of the two 
friends in a cheery voice, but with a meaningly 
quizzical smile — the other being famous indeed for 
the sudden conquests he made, often unwittingly, still 
more often carelessly, of the hearts of fair dames. 
Roland smiled rather scornfully beneath his fair 
moustache. 

“One would think to hear you that I am the 
principal person interested. As if to a young woman 
of any wisdom it would matter a straw that I adored 
her while there is a chance of my cousin Islay giving 
her an approving glance ! ” 

“ You cut me out always, dear old chap, in every- 
thing that comes by nature,” said his cousin, with an 
affectionate side-look— “ in gifts, good looks, luck— in 


8 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


everything that is not to be had by mere money or 
rank. Hallo!” 

Even as the exclamation was uttered, a horse and 
rider, having trotted up gently on the road-side turf, 
passed the bushes. Seeing the recumbent figures 
lying there so unexpectedly, the animal, a thorough- 
bred chestnut, started violently and shied. The rider, 
a stern-looking old man, who was thin and snowy- 
haired, but wonderfully erect of carriage, angrily tried 
to make the startled horse pass on, and punished it 
with his whip. The high-spirited thoroughbred 
instantly rebelled, and a struggle took place. 

In a few seconds the chestnut became utterly 
unmanageable, and dashed at full speed down the 
road in the direction taken by the young peasant 
wayfarers. 

Both the wayfarers, who had been lying on the 
grass so carelessly, had already started to their feet, 
and now hastened after horse and rider to witness the 
upshot, and render help if necessary. But they only 
saw them disappearing round a wooded corner, where 
the furious horse had swerved madly among the oak- 
trees. 

They did not see that presently, after shying 
afresh, the animal unseated its rider, and that, falling 
heavily from his saddle, the old man was dragged by 
one foot that had caught in the stirrup, while his 
white head trailed along the uneven ground. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER II. 

Meanwhile Guelda and her little brother heard the 
sound of galloping hoofs. 

As she sprang up startled from among the blue- 
bells, the girl soon saw a terrible sight. She beheld 
the spectacle of the old man falling from his saddle, 
and the terrified horse rushing towards her, while at 
every bound it seemed as if its late rider’s brains 
must be dashed out. 

A thrill ran through Guelda from head to foot, but 
it was that of quick high courage, an inheritance 
perhaps from dead forefathers, not the tremulous 
palsied feeling of craven fear. In a second her 
nerves seemed strained to highest tension, her eyes 
lighted with a brave steadfast glow, her heart beat fast. 

“ Run, Bino ; ” she cried, pointing towards a thick 
clump of trees ; and the child ran like a scared rabbit. 
But as she spoke she herself started forward, and 
meeting the hot -breathing animal, that just then 
slightly slackened his speed, barely escaped being 
trampled under his hoofs, but caught the bridle close 
by the creature’s head. 

The chestnut horse reared and plunged wildly. 
Twice it seemed as if the girl’s Idelicately rounded 
arms would be torn from their sockets, but those 
small hands closed like steel vices ; although her 
muscles were strained to agony, her will would not 
let them yield, for the struggle was for life. Guelda 
was striving, with her white te’eth clenched, as hard 
for this stranger, whom she had never seen before, 
whom she only saw now as an unrecognisable heap 
of humanity, as ever she could have struggled for her 
own existence. 


10 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


Alas — her senses seemed growing obscured ! 
Despite firm resolution, those slender fingers were 
slowly relaxing ; the girl was half blinded with foam 
shaken from the bit of the plunging horse. But, 
even as her heart began to fail, a voice rang clear 
and strong in her dizzy ears, uttering two words that 
were as trumpet notes, sounding blessed deliverance 
to the nearly vanquished in the strife. 

“ Brave girl ! ” 

A man’s powerful grasp took the place of Guelda’s 
failing hold, and, though a mist somewhat blinded 
her sight, through it she saw as it were the face of St. 
Michael looking into hers with a glorious smile of 
approval. 

She reeled slightly, feeling faint, as she stepped 
backward, and was fain to lean against an oak-tree 
close by, trembling a good deal and checking a 
strong inclination to cry. However, not many mo- 
ments later, seeing a woman’s help might be needed, 
she forced herself to come forward again. 

Both the strangers who had been resting by the 
forest road had now come up. The one whom the 
girl had hardly noticed took in charge the frightened 
horse, that stared wildly, and now stood trembling 
with heaving flanks. The other — the St. Michael — 
was kneeling by the old man, who seemed stunned, 
and was anxiously loosening his collar. 

“May I help you ? You may trust me ; I am used 
to nursing in illness,” said Guelda. 

Her voice thrilled in Ronald Airlie’s ears — for 
that was the wayfarer’s full name — as perhaps the 
sweetest and most harmonious he had ever heard. It 
seemed to him that she was speaking music, and that 
is rare among the unmelodious sounds made by so 
many human millions ; it ravished him with perhaps 
a more subtle pleasure than that given by her beau- 
tiful face or form, for the soft tonps came from her 
heart, he thought. 

Airlie gave a quick look in the speaker’s tremulous 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 11 

face. He noted that her lips, like red rose-leaves, 
were quivering with excitement, while the tears brim- 
ming in those glorious eyes were being bravely 
struggled with and forced back ; and withal that a 
true dignity and self-reliance made themselves felt in 
the girl’s whole bearing. A gleam of warm admira- 
tion lit up his own sea-blue eyes. 

“ Trust you ! I would trust you to do anything 
well you undertook,” he replied, with more fervour in 
his tone than in the moment’s excitement he could 
pause to weigh or repress. 

So Guelda knelt down beside the old man with 
flushing face, but her fingers did not hesitate as she 
quickly used all available means to revive him. Her 
voice recovered full self-possession as she gave direc- 
tions as to where a little spring of water would be 
found. She had noticed it as they came down the 
glade. 

“ Bino, you can show where it is.” 

The little boy, who had emerged from hiding 
behind the trees in terror, was now close at his 
sister’s side again, his black eyes wide with surprise 
and late alarm. He started obediently at once, but 
it was Islay who accompanied the little fellow. 
Ronald stayed behind, and busied himself trying to 
force some brandy from his pocket-flask down the 
.throat of the unconscious man. In this he might 
have blundered but for Guelda’s quick aid. She 
plainly knew what to do and how to do it. So, 
bending together over the suffering stranger, golden 
head and chestnut locks almost touched. Once in- 
deed they did so by chance, and an indefinable thrill 
passed through these two, both young, both so hand- 
some; but the one a poor forest-girl of lowly 
station, the other the heir, if not of wealth, yet of 
an old and noble race and name, endowed by for- 
tune with every blessing and fair gift, as his cousin 
Islay had said, save that of riches. The sea-blue 
eyes met the beautiful brown ones in speaking 


12 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


glances that perhaps said more, however rapidly, than 
the few words which were exchanged concerning the 
old man who was now beginning to show signs of 
recovery. 

A groom in well-appointed livery, who had been 
following his master at some distance, now rode up 
in alarm and brought his services also to the group. 
Ronald in his heart wished him a mile away. 

“ That will do, my good fellow,” he said, haughtily, 
preventing the servant from placing himself somewhat 
too close to Guelda’s side in his zeal. “ Who is your 
master ? ” 

“ Lord Lyndon, sir, of Sheen Abbey,” said the 
man respectfully, instantly recognising that his ques- 
tioner was accustomed to deference as his due. 

Airlie rose to his feet, stifling what sounded like a 
muttered exclamation. His face suddenly changed 
from its late expression of pity and fellow-feeling, as 
he stood, rigid and tall, looking darkly down on the 
prostrate aged figure on the grass at his feet. Guelda 
saw that look and wondered. In later days she 
remembered it but too well, and understood. 

“ He is coming round. I am going to walk on, 
and you can overtake m'e,” Ronald Airlie said to his 
companion, who just then returned, carrying some 
water in his hat, while the child trotted at his heels. 
Islay was just beginning an answering query when 
Airlie added a hasty whisper that brought a look of 
grave surprise on his cousin’s face, who nodded com- 
prehension. But before he strode away, Ronald 
paused, and, laying his hand gently on the boy’s wild 
dark head, asked, “ Which way do you and your 
sister go home, my little man ? ” 

“ Up that hill to the cross-roads,” said Bertrand, 
promptly. And Ronald took the direction to which 
the child’s short fore-finger pointed. 

Presently the old man recovered himself, and tried 
to raise his head that the girl had been supporting in 
her lap. 


13 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. . 

“ What happened ? Merlin — eh — threw me ? I 
remember,” he muttered. His words came in a curt, 
quick tone, as of one used to command, and who 
sought no sympathy from others ; then his gaze, 
seeming still confused, wandered over the faces 
bending towards him in a ring. 

Suddenly, as he saw Guelda fully, a change as of 
horror and great surprise came over his face ; a hasty 
cry, strangely impressing all hearers, burst from his 
ashy lips. 

“You — you ! Great heavens, girl — who are you ? ” 

As he spoke, Lord Lyndon struggled to rise and 
confront the young girl, but would have failed, in his 
weakness, had not Islay and the groom supported 
him on either side. Once on his feet, he still stared 
at his late deliverer as if he saw a ghost, and his face 
worked despite himself, having no strength left after 
his fall, as he watched her. 

“ Can’t you speak ? ” he demanded, with harsh 
querulousness. “ Tell me your name — do you hear ? 
I desire to know it” 

The blood flamed up in Guelda’s cheeks at the 
overbearing tone of command in the last words ; she 
struggled a moment or two against anger at the 
ingratitude she thought dealt her. Then she threw 
up her head unconsciously with pride equal to his 
own, making a beautiful picture. 

“ My name cannot matter to you, sir. As I have 
done all that is needed here, I will wish you good 
evening and a safe journey home. Come, Bino ! ” 

The great basket of flowers stood disregarded on 
the blue -bell bank. Guelda hurriedly caught it up 
like a feather-weight in her flush of hurt feeling, and, 
helping herself by resting it on a tree-trunk, got the 
burden on her head before the groom, who came 
forward, could help her. As she did so, Islay was 
eagerly explaining the late situation to Lord 
Lyndon. 

“ You owe your life to that girl, sir. She risked 


14 


TIIE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


her own in stopping your horse. It was a sight 1 
shall never forget while I live — the most splendidly 
plucky act a woman could do.” 

His bewildered hearer asked a question or two, 
still briefly, but now with high-bred urbanity, having 
recovered partly from his emotion, and recognising 
his equal by Islay’s manner, although surprised at 
meeting a gentleman in the forest loneliness, so far 
out of the beaten track of tourists or rare straying 
artists. Then Lord Lyndon made a few steps 
towards Guelda with evident difficulty. 

“ Pray stay — don’t go for a minute yet, I beg of 
you ! ” he said, arresting the girl’s progress, who was 
just moving away, holding her little brother’s hand. 
“ Will you not come back here ? I am an old man 
and shaken, as you see, or I would go to you ! ” 

So saying, he raised his hat with old-fashioned 
courtesy. Then he sat down heavily on a tree-stump 
near. 

At the changed tone of courtesy the peasant-girl 
hesitated, then came slowly and stood before the old 
lord. She was like one of Gainsborough’s most 
perfect masterpieces suddenly made alive, as she 
stood there, upright as a dart, so slim and graceful, 
carrying the great, blue flower-load on her sunny 
head with ease, while her brown eyes and face, with 
its milk-white and rosy complexion — that, though 
sunburnt a little, was still so marvellously lovely — 
looked straightforward in simple frankness. 

“ What do you want with me, sir ? ’’she quietly asked. 

“To offer you an old man’s thanks,” said Lord 
Lyndon, holding out his hand to the half-unwilling 
girl ; “ and to ask your acceptance of a mere trifle 
besides, for a new frock — eh ? ” 

Seeing the gleam of gold pieces, the rustic goddess 
proudly retreated a step or two backward, while her 
face crimsoned. 

“ I cannot take money. I thank you very much 
but I could not accept any.” 


THE FREAKS OF L\DY FORTUNE. 


15 


“ Would you risk your life then without reward for 
a stranger ? ” asked the old man, watching her 
keenly. 

The girl’s short upper lip curled in pride ; she held 
up her head with as stately an air as though the 
great market-basket of blue-bells it bore was the 
coronet of a duchess. 

“Yes — for any living being who was in distress 
that I could help. I would do it as much for old Eli, 
the Mitcheldean carrier, as for you, sir. What money 
could be worth a life?” 

“ What indeed ? ” murmured the old lord, his pale, 
aquiline face still intent on studying hers. 

“ But, Guelda,” whispered little Bino, audibly, 
looking up at his sister in innocent, pleading remon- 
strance, “ why don’t you take the money — ten pieces 
I am sure I saw nearly — for you know it would pay 
the rent, and then you need not cry next time 
that ” 

She hushed the child by hastily laying her hand 
on his lips ; but Lord Lyndon had half started forward, 
his w'hite brows meeting in a frown as he demanded, 
in curiously tremulous accents : 

“ Guelda — Guelda ? What is your other name, 
girl?” 

“ My name is Guelda Seaton,” answered the girl, 
with frank calmness, surprised at the sudden pallor 
on her questioner’s face, who seemed almost beside 
himself with some violent, secret emotion, whether of 
anger or amazement she could not tell. 

“ And your father — who is — who was he, do you 
say? Tell me the truth.” 

“ My father was a sailor, Lieutenant Bertrand 
Seaton ; but he was drowned in a shipwreck eight 
years ago. What need that matter to you, sir ?. ” 
came in sorrowful answ r er. 

“ I thought as much,” hoarsely muttered Lord 
Lyndon. “ And your mother — she is an Italian, I 
can guess by that little brother of yours, who looks 


16 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


as if he ought to be dragging about a monkey with 
an organ-grinder. How did she come here —to the 
Forest of Dean — eh ? ” 

“ She was an Italian, as you say ; and she came to 
this country to learn something of my father’s family, 
if possible — or so I believe,” was this English 
Perdita’s slowly-dignified reply; “but it is long ago, 
just when my little brother was born, and she died 
herself and left us alone.” 

It was a simply pathetic explanation, followed by 
a few moments of silence. Islay, though he could 
not understand the matter, guessed that here was 
some mystery much deeper than mere curiosity, as 
was revealed by the old man’s looks. The groom, 
whose well-trained manners and whose mouth, close 
as those of stablemen are generally, yet betrayed 
now a glimmering of astonished intelligence ; and 
Guelda herself, who did not see why, after risking 
her life, she should now be thus peremptorily de- 
layed and ordered to “ tell the truth ” — a command 
that some what rankled in her candid mind — both 
stared. 

“Your brother,” went on Lord Lyndon, with 
difficulty, trying to moisten his dry lips as he spoke, 
“ that outlandish name — it is not his right one — eh ? 
What is he called ? ” 

“Bertrand, after our father. I used to call him 
* Bino ’ as a baby, because our old nurse called him 
the baby — bambino; that is all. Now, sir, we shall 
be very late getting home, and I am afraid of missing 
the carrier who offered us a lift. May I wish you 
good-evening ? ” 

“ Stay — one word ! Where do you live ? ” 

Guelda named a hamlet in the forest, near where 
the Wye curves with fretted silvery shallows in its 
loveliest loops low under wooded cliffs. 

“ And what do you do ? Who supports you ? ” 

The girl smiled with a sort of amused wonder, 
thinking in her own mind did he suppose then 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


17 


they were fed by ravens, like the prophet in the 
desert ? 

“ I support myself, thank you, sir — and him,” 
glancing at Bino. 

“ What kind of work ? ” went on her tormentor, 
who looked too pale and weak — being an old and 
very thin man — for much more conversation. But, 
before putting the last question, he briefly desired his 
groom to go to the horses, that were fastened to a 
tree a little way off. 

“ I work in the dairy of a farmer near us — that and 
other things,” said Guelda. “ Good-bye, sir.” 

And, once more taking her little brother by the 
hand, the young girl departed. 

As her slight figure moved out of sight among the 
big branching greenwood trees, the great basket 
poised so steadily on her head and the little lad 
trotting at her side, Lord Lyndon watched her with 
a strange expression till both disappeared. Then his 
head sank upon his breast, his hitherto upright figure 
became bowed, and his hands drooped upon his knees 
in an attitude of the most utter dejection. 

Islay felt slightly alarmed, yet for some minutes 
did not like to speak. Lord Lyndon seemed to be so 
shaken in mind and in body, he had apparently forgot 
the stranger’s presence. 

But when the groom led up the horses, having 
changed his master’s saddle from Merlin to the sober 
brown hack he himself had ridden, the old man 
looked up, aroused. Seeing Islay still at hand, he 
collected his senses and formally thanked him for his 
kind attention. 

“You are not going to ride back to Sheen Abbey, 
I hope, Lord Lyndon,” said Islay. 

“ That is my intention, sir. What a man tries he 
generally has power to do,” was the stiff reply. 
“ May I ask your name, as you seem to have 
learned mine?” 

Islay, with a pleasant smile, gratified his request. 

2 


18 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“ Indeed ! ” The older man rose with a courteous 
air and surprise, though he seemed still hardly to 
know what he was saying. “ I knew your mother 
once. This is a pleasure ; and, although I lead the 
life of a recluse at Sheen, still, if you care to ride 
over and visit a lonely old man, I shall be most 
happy to see you.” 

Islay thanked him with courtesy, but explained he 
was merely spending a few days at a hunting-box he 
owned some miles away, one he had seldom visited 
hitherto. After saying farewell, he started to over- 
take Ronald Airlie. 

As Islay came up with his cousin, both men saw 
Lord Lyndon riding slowly, with drooping head and 
stooped figure, as if stiff and sore of body, down a 
diverging forest- road, followed by his groom. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


19 


CHAPTER III. 

“ Where are they gone? ” asked Ronald, impatiently, 
as Islay came up. 

“Lord Lyndon and his servant?” asked his cousin, 
with a doubting look. 

“ No ; I mean our forest heroine and the boy. I 
have missed them somehow.” 

The truth was that Guelda, seeing Airlie ahead, 
had flown like a scared bird into a side woodland 
path. Yet why she feared, when she wished to meet 
him, she could not have told, except that the thought 
of so doing made her heart beat quicker. 

However, when the two men reached the cross- 
roads on the open hill-top, they saw both their 
peasant beauty and the boy already there, preparing 
to mount a carrier’s rough cart. 

A very different vehicle awaited themselves, fashion- 
able, London-built, and with a splendid horse in the 
shafts in charge of a smart groom. 

Airlie hastened forward and lifted Guelda’s market- 
basket into the cart, disregarding her pleased shy 
remonstrances. As Islay had already told him what 
had passed concerning the girl’s parentage, he did not 
wish to startle her by any more inquiries, though 
inclined to wonder greatly — as did Islay — over the 
matter. 

“ What a glorious load of bluebells ! ” he only said, 
with a quiet smile and a deferential courtesy of 
manner that had such a special charm, and was 
declared by the very greatest of great ladies to be 
perfect. “ May I ask to what use you can possibly 
put them ? You would not leave them to die 
neglected, I am sure.” 


20 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“ O, no ! They are for market ; they will be sold 
sarly to-morrow, I hope,” was the murmured reply, 
while poor Guelda tried not to blush beneath the gaze 
of that face which was, O, a thousand times hand- 
somer than even St. Michael’s — the handsomest face 
she could ever have imagined in even her most 
foolishly innocent maiden dreams ! 

She little guessed that Airlie, who knew well most 
of the beautiful women of the day, had already told 
himself with conviction that this forest maiden sur- 
passed them all in his eyes in simple loveliness. 

“Are ye ready, children ? ” broke in Eli Rastrick, 
the carrier, whose twinkling black eyes were taking in 
the scene. 

He was of true British race, with a gipsy com- 
plexion and short curling dark hair ; a descendant of 
those brave Silurians who fought the Second Legion 
of Rome in these very woods two thousand years 
ago. 

“ Give me one blue-bell, I beg, in remembrance of 
to-day, if even we never meet again,” said Ronald, so 
low that only Guelda heard him, while his hand 
already sought a flower her fingers caressed. Eli 
had turned his head, and was urging his horse to 
“ get up.” 

Ronald rejoined his cousin with the most innocent 
air in the world, but that coveted flower was fastened 
in his coat. 

“ Lucky as always ! ” smiled Islay, amused, but half 
enviously ; and they drove off, passing the creaking 
cart with its load of sacks on which Guelda sat 
throned. 

“ Sister,” observed Bino, “ there was a little crown 
painted on the carriage. What does that mean ? ” 

“ I don’t know, dear ; I’ve only seen one on the 
mail-cart,” replied his sister, in a humble voice. 

It was late evening when these two reached 
their home. As seen from the road, their dwelling 
appeared a dilapidated hovel, sliding into ruin. Like 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


21 


most of the cottages in that neighbourhood, it had 
originally been made of “ wattle and dab,” the frame- 
work being of wooden posts and cross-beams, filled in 
with a rude conglomerate of mud and loose stones, 
once plastered white. But the plaster had peeled 
away long ago, and a gaping hole in the roof 
exposed to wind and rain what had once been an 
attic. 

A little gate set under a large yew-tree led, how- 
ever, by a curving path formed of a few slabs of slate 
to the front of the old cottage. Here, over a small 
and rickety porch, was trained carefully a sweet 
clinging honeysuckle, while a great laburnum, which 
tree is called “ golden chain ” in that country, dropped 
its yellow rain of blossoms close beside, and a bush of 
lilac, bending beneath spikes of odorous bloom, 
scented the air. 

Guelda unlocked the door with a big key she had 
carried all day in her pocket, and wearily entered a 
little kitchen that, with its garret overhead, had not 
as yet crumbled into ruin like the back of the house. 
For almost the first time the girl’s eyes looked round 
dissatisfied. Yet the tiny windows that admitted so 
little light into the cottage were spotlessly clean, as 
was the red-tiled floor that was worn into many 
hollows. Three wooden chairs and a table of old- 
fashioned make were polished brightly, though frail 
and rickety from age ; a few — very few — kitchen 
utensils were scoured till they shone ; these and some 
coarse plates and cups comprised nearly all the 
furniture. 

An ancient “ grandfather’s clock,” Guelda’s former 
pride, the arm-chair that had once stood beside the 
hearth, and various china ornaments of the pastoral 
kind, such as occupy the place of honour on many a 
cottage mantel-shelf — all had been sold. The sorrow- 
ful girl had flung one by one her simple treasures to 
the wolves to save her little brother from want. She 
could always have gained enough for herself ; but he 


22 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


was so delicate, and a heavy weight, so to speak, 
round her young neck. 

“ Let him go to the workhouse,” the neighbours 
sometimes suggested, “ then you can keep yourself.” 

Guelda only shook her head at these good people, 
but in her heart she passionately rejected the idea. 
So long as she could earn a crust and a half, Bino 
should have the whole crust. What — abandon the 
pretty black-eyed child who clung to her as if she 
was a mother as well as sister — the tender charge 
solemnly left to her care by that dead mother whom 
Guelda so religiously, if dimly, remembered ? Never, 
never ! 

The rough but kindly forest women understood 
and respected her feeling ; yet they, too, shook their 
heads. 

The boy was a poor, pining creature, who would 
never be “sprack and clever, like his sister,” they 
said to each other. 

Now she was a likely girl, who could work, and 
did, although she gave herself the airs of a fine lady ; 
but she was allowing the boy to grow up idle and 
useless. 

Poor Guelda ! At times the young mother-sister 
did indeed feel over-burdened with her charge ; and 
her golden head would droop ; and at nights, when 
she worked late, whilst Bino lay happily asleep, and 
she was darning his socks or mending her own gown, 
some salt tears often enough dropped on her work. 

But this night, after their forest ramble, though 
Bino was over-tired and inclined to quarrel peevishly 
with his supper — poor child ! — and Guelda was even 
more fatigued than himself, to tell the truth, a certain 
exaltation of spirit, the after-glow of her courage and 
adventures that day, still thrilled her veins. The 
eyes of her helper, “ St. Michael,” seemed often to 
smile at her out of the shadowy corners of the cot- 
tage, “ so handsome, with such a true and noble ex- 
pression of face ! ” she thought in her heart. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 23 

Alas, only three nights later our heroine’s mood 
was sadly changed ! 

“ Sister, I want some bread-and-cheese. Sister, I 
am hungry ! Is there no supper, Guelda ? ,5 Bino 
kept asking a dozen times, in childish petulance. 

Bright tears rose in Guelda’s eyes at last ; but she 
turned her head to hide them from her little brother. 

“ Come and sit on my lap, dear, and I will tell you 
a fairy- story,” she said, and tried to persuade him to 
listen. 

But Bino would not be pacified ; till at last she 
sadly told him, “ There is no supper at all, dear — 
none. There — don’t think about it ! Mrs. Rastrick 
says she will be baking to-morrow morning, and she’ll 
give us some bread nice and hot.” 

But even this prospect did not restrain Bino from 
breaking out into disappointed howls, which only 
ended in faint sobs when Guelda at last coaxed him 
to bed, and then sat long beside the child, holding 
his hand and hushing him as a nurse might a babe. 
Tears still lay wet on the little fellow’s pale cheeks, 
and, though he slept, an occasional whimper at times 
broke his rest. 

And now, only, the weary sister allowed herself the 
luxury of crying too. The young healthy girl was 
also in truth very hungry ; her limbs ached with 
fatigue, for she had walked many miles that day in a 
vain search for work, and neither food nor farthing 
was in the cottage. 

Things had gone wrong ; a housekeeper at the 
farm where she generally worked had been harsh 
and fault-finding past endurance — probably stirred 
by jealousy. Guelda’s high spirit rose at the injus- 
tice. She gave back scorn for scorn, was dismissed 
and this was the outcome. 

What wonder that now, putting her handkerchief 
to her face, she rocked herself back and forward 
gently in an outburst of sorrow ? Her heart was 
wrung with her little brother’s vain cries to her for food. 


24 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“ Ah, if only our mother had lived ! But she was 
so delicate — that might even have been worse. Or 
my father, if he had come back ! ” thought the girl, 
who felt so orphaned, so helpless, yet with this young 
life clinging to hers for help. 

It was quite dark now in the little kitchen. Never-* 
theless, even in the gloom, its owner was painfully 
sensible of all its squalor — for she kept thinking that 
the hard chair she sat on, even the poor bed whereon 
Bino now lay, might soon be seized to pay their 
rent. 

The slight young figure dimly outlined there, 
clasping her knees in an attitude of deep dejection, 
was a sad enough sight. But there were no friendly 
eyes to peep under the drooping leaves that framed 
the little window ; and, indeed, had any spied, they 
would have seen only darkness, for Guelda had no 
candle, light being a luxury when food absent. 
Was it any wonder that the gleam of Lord Lyndon’s 
proffered gold came back before the girl’s eyes ? 

“ I might have taken it — it was justly earned — for 
Bino’s sake,” she sadly mused, almost regretting her 
pride — for pride is a luxury too. 

Darker and darker grew the shadows outside on 
the garden bushes, the great golden-chain and the 
lilacs, and on the meadow beyond, with its big 
hedgerow oaks. Deeper still fell the darkness and 
sense of loneliness in this poor, however picturesque, 
cottage. 

“ I will go' to bed,” thought the lonely young 
creature ; so, rising and undoing her coarse old gown, 
she began letting loose the glory of her hair that fell 
around her like a veil. 

What was that loud noise of fast wheels approach- 
ing? Guelda paused in surprise to listen, for in the 
hamlet loneliness such a sound was rare. Not Eli? 
No; and there were more than one horse’s hoofs 
rapidly nearing. It grew ever louder. It was stop- 
ping at the cottage gate ! The young owner’s heart 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 25 

beat faster, with a sudden horror. She had heard 
tales of a phantom hearse that drove at night on the 
roads and waited at any house where someone was 
doomed to die. 

The gate latch lifted with a click, men’s steps 
echoed on the slate-flagged path, and a knocking 
came at the door. Hastily pulling on her dress 
again, Guelda asked in trembling tones through the 
keyhole what was wanted. 

“ A message for Miss Seaton— does she live here?” 
was the answer. 

“ Yes ; but it is very late. Who is sending to 
me ? ” faltered the girl, in vague terror. Alas ! could 
her fears be true, and these be the dreaded messen- 
gers of the law come to seize their little all ? 

“ Lord Lyndon has sent us. It is urgent — pray 
let me speak with you ! ” said a voice in most re- 
spectful accents. Guelda opened the door, holding 
high a small end of candle she had lit — the last. 

An elderly, most respectable-looking man, dressed 
in black, stood on the threshold. He stepped back 
slightly, seeming amazed at sight of Guelda, who 
offered indeed a strange vision of loveliness there, 
framed in her golden hair. Recovering himself, the 
old man hemmed slightly. 

“ It is a late hour to disturb you, Miss Seaton. But 
my master is ill, I am grieved to say — I am his lord- 
ship’s butler, and have been his confidential servant 
for many years. Ever since you saved his life the 
other day, Lord Lyndon has thought very much 
about meeting you so strangely, it is my belief — in- 
deed, he told me as much this evening. Now he has 
made up his mind, and wishes to see you and your 
brother immediately. He has sent the carriage for 
you both to-night.” 

A carriage with a handsome pair of horses flecked 
with foam waited indeed at the tiny gate, its lamps 
sending gleams up the path. 

“ But, please, sir, what does Lord Lyndon want 


26 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


with us? I hardly know him ; and my little brother, 
see, is sleeping,” returned Guelda, bewildered, turning 
the light on the little fellow lying on his wretched 
enough, though clean, pallet. Then she added, with 
a pitiful yearning in her voice, remembering how 
supperless both were, “ Yet if he really means to do 
us good! You have a kind face yourself, sir — tell 
me, I beg of you, what does this mean ? ” 

“ It means, my dear young lady, that Lord Lyndon 
has the best right of all living people to expect your 
obedience to his wishes, now that your father, poor 
Mr. Bertrand is dead.” 

“Why — why? What has he to do with our 

father ? ” 

“ Captain Bertrand Seaton was his second son,” 
said the old man rather solemnly. “ Lord Lyndon is 
your grandfather, Miss Seaton.” 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


27 


CHAPTER IV. 

There was a strange confusion in Guelda’s mind 
after the old servant had brought his message. 

As in a dream the girl found herself in a luxurious 
carriage with Bino beside her, who, after asking 
reiterated sleepy questions in astonishment while 
being dressed, had now relapsed into profound 
childish slumber on the easy cushions. His sister was 
free, therefore, to think “ over it all ” in peace. 

A dream ! Yes, surely it was all a dream, a vision 
of sleep, that wonderful news, the hurried leave- 
taking at night of the little cottage which, however 
crazy as to roof and walls, had yet been home ; the 
powdered coachman and beautiful fretting horses, the 
handsome harness and liveries', and even this grand 
carriage in which they were whirled along past well- 
known landmarks that Guelda could just distinguish 
in the darkness ? It seemed a dream ; but it was 
actually wonderfully true. A thousand questions 
rose in the girl’s mind, yet, knowing so little, she could 
only sit dazed for an hour and a half, while presently, 
leaving the forest roads, she knew they passed through 
some outlying hamlets and descended into the rich 
champaign country on the borders of the Forest of 
Dean. It was too dark to see the landscape, but at 
last the carriage turned in at a lodge gate and, pass- 
ing up a drive under the darkness of some giant 
trees, stopped before the steps of what seemed a 
stately house. 

“ Welcome to Sheen Abbey, Miss Seaton ! ” said 
the old butler, Hillis, as he assisted his charges to 
alight. 

Brother and sister passed wonderingly through a 


28 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


row of servants, at whose powder and plush Bino 
gazed in open-mouthed admiration, across the narrow 
marble hall, with many pillars and short flights of 
steps, then through some sitting-rooms that were a 
revelation of beauty and luxury, and almost over- 
powered the simple country bred girl. These carpets, 
in which one’s feet sank deep as in the forest moss ; 
those silken-covered sofas and chairs of such dainty 
hues, of heavenly ethereal blue and pink faint as 
fading wild roses. Guelda was ashamed to tread 
there in her clumsy shoes, to pass with her coarse 
dress by the pictures of fine ladies in sweeping velvets 
and feathered hats, or dressed in cloud-like muslins 
and broad blue sashes ; the noble gentlemen with 
ribbons and stars upon their coats who gazed down 
from the walls large as life. How they must wonder 
at such rustic, awkward descendants ! 

In a smaller room an old woman received them, 
wearing such a fine black silk gown that the abashed 
visitor at first supposed her to be one of the family. 

“ This is the housekeeper,” Hillis, however, ex- 
plained ; she was waiting to help Miss Seaton 
arrange her dress before seeing his lordship. 

“Must I see him to-night?” murmured the latter, 
bewildered, glancing at an exquisite little clock up- 
held by Cupids that marked midnight. “ I have no 
other dress ; and indeed we are not fit.” 

There was no help for it, however ; Lord Lyndon’s 
orders were that both brother and sister should be 
brought to him at once. So, taking off her battered 
hat, by the old housekeeper’s advice, and smoothing 
her beautiful hair, the girl prepared for the interview 
with a beating heart. 

“ Don’t be afraid, Miss Seaton ! ” the old house- 
keeper said, encouragingly. “Your likeness to your 
grandmother is wonderful ; Mr. Hillis says it quite 
took him aback when he first saw you.” 

Hand-in-hand, the sister and brother followed the 
old butler presently ; the latter only admonishing 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


29 


them to be as quiet as possible when meeting their 
grandfather, as he was ill, and at all times disliked 
“ excitement.” What Hillis meant by this was 
explained by his adding, in a confidential tone : 

“ His lordship said to me this evening I was to tell 
you your family position towards him — having con- 
fidence in me, if I may be allowed to say so — and 
because he hated scenes. His words were, * Above 
all, Hillis, I will have no scene. However, my grand- 
daughter seems sensible’ — you will forgive my liberty, 
Miss Seaton, in repeating his words — ‘ or I should 
never have sent for them. 7 ” 

Old Hillis was in truth most anxious, too, for his 
own part to see the young girl’s lovely face, which 
had already made a conquest of himself, brightening 
the loneliness of the beautiful old Abbey. They 
entered a bedroom now so handsome and lofty that 
Bino would have looked about curiously, but that, on 
passing behind a high screen, they confronted Lord 
Lyndon himself. The old man was sitting propped 
upright with pillows, wearing a black velvet cap on 
his head and a red flowered dressing-gown. On the 
table beside him wax candles were burning in tall 
silver sticks, lighting up his strongly-marked, pale, 
and haughty face. Guelda fancied there had been a 
look of almost yearning anxiety on those features as 
they entered ; but she told herself instantly after she 
must have been deceived, for Lord Lyndon calmly 
raised a pair of eye-glasses, and, without a word, 
surveyed his grandchildren for some seconds. Little 
Bino pressed close to his sister’s side his dark eyes 
staring affrighted from under his elf-locks ; but 
Guelda, whose pride was stung by such a reception 
given to his own flesh and blood, drew up her tall, 
slight figure as might a queen, with her head held 
high, and her tawny brown eyes lighted up with 
sudden fire. 

A slight smile curled the old man’s thin lips, though 
a low sigh escaped him ; but he put down his gold- 


30 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


rimmed eye-glasses and held out a thin hand, saying 
approvingly : 

“ Ah, I see you are proud, child — I like you none 
the worse for it. If your father had but been more 
so — however, no matter now ! ” 

He made a slight gesture towards old Hillis, who 
obediently withdrew. 

A short silence followed. The old lord sat as one 
gazing down a long vista of memories, with his eyes 
fixed on Guelda. This reverie was broken by a 
whimper little Bino could not repress, and which 
brought the dreadful gaze he shunned full upon him- 
self. 

“ Humph ! It is a pity you cannot make the boy 
more like yourself — I like you,” the grandfather 
observed to Guelda, in clear, cutting tones. 

“ Who likes me must like him too,” said the girl, 
bravely. 

Again the old man gave a curious, half-sad, half- 
satirical smile, but went on as if she had not spoken. 

“ I have sent for you, Guelda Seaton, not so much 
because you are the last of my race, as because your 
courage pleased me ; and that you own a wonderful 
resemblance to one who was very dear to me and 
died young — I mean my wife, your grandmother.” 

He raised his eyes, as he spoke, to the portrait that 
hung close by ; and Guelda, following his look, quite 
started to perceive a beautiful 'pictured face meeting 
hers with what seemed precisely the same countenance 
she had always seen in her cracked mirror at the 
cottage — the same glossy golden hair and warm 
brown eyes ; the same bright smile and proud poise of 
the head ; only the pictured Guelda was arrayed in 
velvets and jewels, the other in homely simplicity and 
a coarse darned gown. 

Then she heard Lord Lyndon’s voice continuing : 

“Now I have sent for you to ask if you will care to 
try living with me, a lonely, and, as you will find, 
often irritable old man. If you please me, Sheen 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


31 


Abbey is your natural home ; if not, at least in justice 
I will offer you that education and position which 
your birth requires.” 

“ I thank you, grandfather,” murmured Guelda, 
feeling almost stunned ; adding, however, pleadingly, 
“ But I can only accept your kindness if you mean 
Bertrand to share it — I cannot part from him.” 

“ Yes ; he seems to need you more than a boy of 
his age should do. Very well, I will do as much for 
him. Perhaps he has more claim on my bounty than 
you, after all, though you don’t seem to know it,” said 
the old man, grimly ; ‘ but he is no Seaton in face. 
What ails the child — what are you crying for, eh ? ” 

Bino wiped away a tear or two with his fingers. “ I 
want my supper,” he said, simply. 

Guelda hastily explained his hungry and sleepy 
state in apology. Lord Lyndon winced as if sharply 
struck by the suffering endured by these young 
creatures which he could only guess at. Pressing a 
silver call-bell for Hillis, he gave orders that a supper 
should be instantly served in the salon, and that the 
housekeeper must see at once that Miss Seaton was 
provided with all she needed. 

“ Forgive my thoughtlessness, my dear,” he said, 
very feebly, to his granddaughter ; “ I am ill to-night. 
I wish in the morning that you should both keep 
your rooms till my housekeeper has provided you with 
suitable clothes to appear in before my servants. 
Now you may go.” 


32 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER V. 

A wonderful transformation now came over 
Guelda’s life. She hardly seemed to know herself, 
so different was not only her outer raiment, her ne\V 
existence, with its luxurious surroundings, but also her 
inner being. 

For all the young girl’s thoughts were changed. 

No more cares for the rent and daily food — no 
more pinch of hunger nor pang of cold. Now her 
chief anxiety was to please her grandfather in her 
speech and behaviour ; her hardest exercise was to 
ride out daily with the old man, which she soon did 
fearlessly and well, her graceful figure drawing his 
frequent gaze of silent but evident admiration. 
Lastly, her paramount task was also a keen pleasure 
— namely, the education Guelda toiled with all her 
heart to acquire, in order to fit herself for the position 
of a lady. 

“ What do you know, child ? ” asked Lord Lyndon. 
“ Humph — nothing, I see ! ” — so he added, with bent 
brows, as his granddaughter told falteringly of the 
village night-school and the simple rudiments of 
learning she had painstakingly acquired there. 

“ Indeed, I learnt all I could,” she replied, in plead- 
ing extenuation of her apparent fault. “ Mother told 
me before dying that, if my father had lived, he would 
have expected me to be a lady, because we were of 
gentle birth ; so for his sake I tried hard to keep up 
what I knew, and pay for Bino’s schooling ; and she 
desired us, too, to live apart from the village gossip 
and people, and we did so — but it was very lonely.” 

Lord Lyndon did not apparently wish to hear 
more. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


33 


“ Do you know Italian, at least ? ” he abruptly asked. 

“ O, yes ! ” 

Guelda had been able to speak nothing else when 
she came to England about eight years ago. After 
their mother’s death, Bino and she had still always 
talked with their old nurse in Italian, till the latter 
also died, the winter before last. 

“Pure Tuscan, thank Heaven!” decided Lord 
Lyndon — himself no mean scholar of modern lan- 
guages — after testing his granddaughter’s proficiency. 
“ Then you have a good voice — I overheard you 
singing yesterday. That will do — I hate blue-stock- 
ings and girls like living dictionaries. You shall 
have masters in London, and next winter I will take 
you to Paris and Italy.” 

Guelda possessed certainly a beautiful voice, rich 
and full and true — a precious gift transmitted by her 
dead Italian mother. Had she not been adopted by 
this newly-found grandfather, it might have gained 
her, if trained, considerable notice as a public singer. 

Life therefore that summer became a panorama to 
the girl, daily unrolling fresh wonders ; and, though 
her new position had its anxieties, she soon leant, 
with a woman’s tact, to accommodate herself to the 
old lord’s temper and requirements from gratitude 
and a sense of duty. 

She studied diligently with a governess ; she grew 
daily more beautiful ; and Lord Lyndon, who had 
been greatly impressed from the first with the girl’s 
likeness to his lamented young wife of long ago, grew, 
though in a stern, silent way, more and more 
attached to this last daughter of his race. He 
watched her with a hawk-like eye, but seldom 
reproved her, and then with punctilious courtesy. 
His servants, by whom he was feared, as much 
because of tales of his former harshness as for his 
present curt speech and haughtiness, saw with as- 
tonishment this newly-found grandchild’s influence 
daily softening and brightening him. 


3 


34 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


The truth was, the old man had felt very lonely 
for years back. The snows of old age were gather- 
ing round his heart, when on a sudden this young 
life made spring-time there again. Perhaps he 
remembered how his dying, beauti-ful wife had in- 
trusted two baby-boys to his care. In his grief the 
father shut himself up in seclusion. Later, he travelled, 
and sent the little lads to school, seeing not much of 
them, understanding less of their natures. 

The eldest son grew up wild and careless, and 
Lord Lyndon was startled and greatly angered to 
find that his heir, on coming of age, was already 
deeply in debt. Extricated once or twice, the young 
man at last involved himself in such disgraceful em- 
barrassments that his father refused ever to help or 
see him again. 

Robert Seaton afterwards took refuge from his 
debtors in Australia, whence came news that he had 
died in want and obscurity. 

That was a deeper blow to the father than any 
guessed, for Robert was like himself in features and 
disposition — haughty, unbending — and Lord Lyndon 
loved him best. 

Bertram was left, however ; he was then a com- 
mander in the Royal Navy. When next the sailor- 
son came to Sheen Abbey on leave, after one of his 
voyages, Lord Lyndon peremptorily told him he must 
get married. He was now the heir to an old name 
and property ; marriage was his duty. 

Good-natured Bertrand winced under his father’s 
command, shuffled, hesitated. The easy-going sailor 
disliked and tried to avoid quarrels, and a dread of 
his father’s anger, deeply implanted in childhood, still 
weighed heavily upon him. 

But the truth must out — he was married already. 
When still almost a lad, Bertrand had fallen desper- 
ately in love with a beautiful Italian girl, poor, an 
orphan, but of good family. Dreading his father’s 
anger, Bertie had kept the matter quiet ; and, as 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


35 


his ship was stationed for a somewhat long period 
in the Mediterranean, he was able to see his wife and 
little daughter pretty frequently. 

“ If only his father could see how beautiful was 
his Graziella, how little Guelda resembled her grand- 
mother ! ” pleaded the young man. 

But Lord Lyndon cut short the description with 
scathing scorn and fury. A second time he drove a 
son from his door, desiring Bertrand never to see his 
face again. When, two or three years later, he read 
in the papers that the gunboat commanded by 
Lieutenant Bertrand Seaton had foundered in a 
hurricane somewhere in the Pacific, and that only two 
sailors survived to tell the tale, these being picked up 
after days’ drifting in a boat wherein the rest of the 
crew were corpses — then, perhaps — who could say ? — 
he was again saddened. 

But the lonely man made no efforts to trace 
Bertrand’s wife, nor yet to seek out the latter’s infant 
daughter. What was the use ? he had harshly said 
to himself. People of that kind were certain to come 
begging sooner or later. Bertrand, however, had 
only told his young wife of a stern father who lived 
in England near a forest called Dean. They must 
never expect aid from him. Please Heaven, said the 
honest sailor, he himself would work for his wife and 
infant daughter ! But when the news came that he 
was drowned, when also baby Bino was born, poor 
Graziella started for England with her children, in 
the hope of finding the dreaded grandfather and 
gaining some protection for her fatherless babes. 

On the journey she was taken ill, and died on 
reaching the first forest village. The old lord was 
not displeased, nevertheless, at little Bino’s unsus- 
pected existence. The boy was Italian in every 
feature, true ; and Lord Lyndon would have preferred 
an heir resembling his own stock, like Guelda. 
Nevertheless, little Bertrand was his own flesh and 
blood, too young to be yet as disagreeable as the 


36 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

owner of Sheen had found his other heirs, and of a 
tractable, even too yielding, disposition. He was 
pleased also that the title should not die out. 

All therefore went more merrily at the Abbey than 
the old servants remembered for years. In the 
winter Guelda travelled to Italy with her grandfather, 
and made a surprising progress in all the accomplish- 
ments she took up. But then she had inherited gifts 
long handed down in the Seaton family. In their 
absence, meanwhile, little Bino was sent to school. 

In the spring Lord Lyndon took his granddaughter 
to London for the season. The doors of his house 
in Belgrave Square were once more opened to society, 
and the most beautiful women, many bearing the 
highest titles in the land, with men whose fame and 
names were world-wide, crossed its threshold. 

For, although Lord Lyndon had been a recluse so 
long at Sheen Abbey, he had by no means given up 
the world. Celebrated in his young days as a viveur, 
in widowed middle age he had become somewhat 
noted as a traveller and man of letters who had kept 
up relations with his compeers in intellect. Not 
only his pride, but his affection, had grown so entirely 
centred in his grand-daughter that the old man was 
determined to see her become “ a success ” before he 
died. To this end he sought out the assistance of 
some connections of the Seaton family who were very 
great ladies indeed, and who, although old enough to 
remember, perhaps with lingering sentiment, the once 
handsome and hot-headed young Lyndon, were not 
too old to cease delighting in the whirl of society. 

These dowagers received the young girl kindly, 
with somewhat surprised approbation. 

They decided she was to know only the best 
people, to be presented at the first Drawing-Room ; 
balls and receptions were to be given to introduce 
her. 

Guelda was almost bewildered at the number of 
beautiful dresses and sparkling jewels that seeded to 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 37 

rain from the skies upon her by her grandfather’s 
orders, by the crowds of acquaintance whose cards of 
calls and invitations showered thick as leaves at the 
big house in Belgrave Square; above all, she was 
dazzled by the brilliancy of her first parties. 

Lord Lyndon’s dearest wishes were more quickly 
and far more utterly realised than anyone but the 
fickle Goddess of Fortune could have foreseen, for 
Guelda was pronounced on her first appearance not 
only a success, but a sensation. She was at once 
declared to be one of the belles — some among the 
crowd of her newly-sprung admirers even hotly 
declared, “ the ” belle of the season. Besides, it was 
rumoured there was a romance attached to the 
beautiful young debutantes history. No one exactly 
knew the story, but all the more wonderful rumours 
were afloat of how Lord Lyndon had found her in a 
gipsies’ camp or travelling with a circus. Wherever 
she appeared, at balls or parties, a little buzz of 
curiosity went through the fashionable throng, and 
heads were craned to see the “ beautiful Miss Seaton ” 
that would not have turned a hair’s breadth to notice 
a great mathematician or philosopher. 

Guelda first learned her power at a splendid ball 
given by the Duke of Islay, about a week after our 
heroine had been presented at Court. She had just 
slowly made her way beside her grandfather up the 
magnificent marble staircase that was thronged with 
guests. The staircase cost a former Duke of Islay 
half a year’s income, so famous were the statues set 
in the niches on the one side, so glorious the iron- 
work of the balustrade on the other that had been 
brought from the Low Countries, and was once the 
magnum opus of a by -gone master of iron-craft. 

“ What a crowd ! ” exclaimed testily an old gentle- 
man beside Guelda, who, as she afterwards learned, 
was a famous composer. “ And at whom are they all 
staring — eh ? ” for many faces were turned in his 
direction, and the crowd pressed closer there. 


33 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“ Ah, not at you or me, my friend ! The new 
beauty is the attraction, Miss Seaton. All the world 
is raving about her,” returned another elderly man, in 
a tone of amused malice, which, though whispered, 
Guelda’s tingling ears distinctly heard. The last 
speaker had a kindly though satirical smile, and wore 
a star on his coat. She already recognised him as a 
well-known diplomatist. 

“The world is a many-headed noodle,” grumbled 
the slighted possessor of music’s divine gift, who 
glared angrily around, unconscious that his graceful 
rival in popular favour was actually beside him. 
“ Because a young woman has a pretty face, she is 
worshipped or exalted on her very first appearance, 
while men may toil their lives long in honourable 
struggles for fame without any fool caring a button 
about them. Bah — it is disgusting ! ” 

Guelda had only time to recover from the great 
surprise of hearing that she was “ raved about ” as a 
beauty — she who felt herself still so shy in this 
London crowd of rank, riches, and fashion, so pain- 
fully rustic, when she found herself kindly welcomed 
by Lady Grizel Airlie, the duke’s only and unmarried 
sister, who acted as hostess for her brother. Lady 
Grizel had the reputation of being somewhat brusque 
and taking strong likes and dislikes to new acquaint- 
ances ; she was, though young, a personage of con- 
siderable importance in society, not only on account 
of her position, but also because of her singular 
straightforward determination of character. On first 
meeting Guelda she had shown a most decided 
partiality towards her, and in a few days this went 
the length of requesting that her new friend should 
first “ come out ” at this ball. 

Old Lord Lyndon smiled under his grey moustache 
at this — a peculiar smile; then he gravely told his 
grand-daughter she ought to feel flattered. 

As the young girl now advanced, looking in her 
exquisitely-fitting white dress, veiled with gossamer 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


39 


tulle, like a tall white lily, Lady Grizel, herself a 
handsome brunette, smiled kindly upon the lovely 
vision. 

“ My dear,” she said, “ my brother, the Duke of 
Islay, wishes to renew a former slight acquaintance 
with you.” 

Guelda looked round, surprised. Then a sudden 
look of recognition darted into her great deer-like 
eyes. 

A pleasant-faced young man, with an amused but 
very kindly smile, was bowing to her. He was one 
of the two strangers who had helped to save Lord 
Lyndon’s life in the forest. Not St. Michael — no — 
but still the other. 


40 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER VI. 

“ I AM so surprised ! ” exclaimed Guelda, with a 
spontaneous brightness of look and manner that was 
one of her chief charms. It was not that vivacity of 
gesture and voice which so often seems to preclude 
the idea of rest ; rather her whole face became 
irradiated, like a lamp suddenly lit, with the thought 
possessing her. 

“ You must forgive me for not allowing my sister 
to tell you of our previous meeting. I wished to 
enjoy another unexpected rencontre on your part/* 
replied the Duke of Islay, smiling. “ Will you dance 
this with me, in token of pardon for my little ruse ? ” 

He led his lovely guest, talking to her at once in 
a friendly tone as of old acquaintanceship, through the 
fashionable crowd which filled the splendid suite of 
drawing-roorfis and into the great ball-room, with its 
floor polished like a dark mirror, reflecting the clusters 
of dazzling lights overhead. Groups of gilded youths, 
who had already proclaimed the beautiful Miss Seaton 
as their divinity for the season, observed to each other, 
in envious tones, “ Islay seems as much attracted as 
the rest.” Indeed, no one had ever seen him pay so 
much attention to any girl before. Many mothers 
also watched, feeling jealously for their daughters’ 
sakes that it was hard that the young duke, who was 
one of the best matches in England, should never 
have seemed to care for dancing or for ladies’ society 
hitherto, having always preferred hunting, travelling, 
and shooting big game. But now — there was no 
doubt of it, if anyone watched his face — a task many 
eyes took on themselves that evening — he was evi- 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


41 


dently much smitten by one whom they believed to 
be an utter stranger to him hitherto. 

Guelda guessed nothing of all these thoughts in 
the crowd around her ; no idea that she might be soon, 
if not already, the object of envy and detraction, 
because so much admired, threw the least shadow on 
her pure mind. In her innocence she was guilelessly 
happy ; the world was beautiful, full of glad surprises 
— everyone was so kind. 

“ It is so delightful to be able to talk to you about 
the dear old forest, because you know — or perhaps 
you can guess a little — what my former life was 
like ! ” she exclaimed, in a burst of confidence, 
feeling almost as if she had found a relation in Islay, 
who had been asking after her little brother with very 
real Interest, and inquiring how Guelda herself felt 
in her new circumstances. “ My grandfather does 
not wish me to talk about those days before he met 
with us to any of these new acquaintances,” she went 
on, confidentially ; “ so it is sometimes very awkward 
if they ask questions ; but, as you know, it does not 
matter with you — does it ? ” 

“ Certainly not, I should think ! ” returned her 
flattered partner, delighted to find this - secret bond of 
sympathy already established between himself and 
the beautiful girl whose every look and motion his 
eyes were certainly following with a newly- aroused 
undisguised admiration. “ How was it, may I ask 
though, that Lord Lyndon never himself told you my 
name ? He knew it in the forest.” 

“I think he would like to forget all about that 
meeting ; he always seems to treat my past as if it 
had no existence — as if our lives began when he 
sent for my brother and me to live with him at Sheen 
Abbey. He is so good that perhaps it grieves him 
to remember our dark days.” 

“ I don’t know who would not be kind to you,” 
said Islay, with what Guelda took to be a glance of 
quite brotherly regard, and was grateful for accord- 


42 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


ingly. Then, changing his earnest tone, rather like a 
big schoolboy abashe*d at his own daring, he went on 
abruptly, in a tone of good-humoured banter, “ Come 
and see how you look in this mirror ; your story is 
like Cinderella at the ball, isn’t it ? I wonder if you 
have met your prince yet ? ” 

“ Ah, that I cannot tell you ! ” said Guelda, laughing 
and blushing shyly ; then, piteously — “ Let us hope I 
may never have to go back to my rags and the 
kitchen ; that would be dreadful ! ” 

“You will never have to do that,” said her new 
friend emphatically, looking at her still in the mirror. 
“ It will be your own choice, certainly, if you ever 
again know what it is to suffer want ! ” 

As they stood alone for a few minutes in the 
boudoir, the fair vision in the mirror — at which the 
young man looked almost humbly in his adoration, 
feeling his honest heart stirred as never by woman’s 
likeness before — was truly so lovely that it was a 
strange thought to imagine it associated with Cinder- 
ella’s poverty, neglect and ill-usage. Tall and slender, 
Guelda’s figure was really classical in its harmonious 
outlines, while her veins and every nerve so thrilled 
with warm health and youth that she was as supple 
and as delicately made, and as full of elastic strength 
and vitality as a young doe on the mountains. 
Among all the other beautiful women there she 
moved a moon among the stars. Old men quoted 
the Gunning sisters, and other town-toasts of bygone 
days that were net yet matter of ancient history to 
them. 

Guelda did not heed that the duke was drinking in 
her beauty through his boyish-looking grey eyes. 
She was looking round, herself entranced with 
delight at the scene around her. The room they had 
reached was transformed into a bower of roses, roses 
everywhere covering the walls, and even hanging 
overhead in a sweetest canopy of garlands drawn 
tentwise together. There were great banks of 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


43 


delicately-scented gloires-de-Dijon , of glorious dark 
crimson, of sweetest tea and palest blush roses, veiled 
by maidenhair ferns, while the air was musical with 
the splash of mimic fountains. The former peasant- 
girl felt thrilled with pleasure As their scent seemed 
to steal into her soul, calling up poetic, paradisaical 
visions, vague but utterly delightful, ' beyond the 
realities of the earth. 

“ It is roses, roses everywhere,” came from her own 
rose-red lips, through which her teeth smiled in a 
gleam of dazzling white ; then, with a little sigh of 
satisfaction, she murmured, “ How perfect ! It is like 
the realization of a dream to me ; for, as flowers are 
perhaps the most beautiful gifts to us on earth, so I 
love roses the best of all ; and I have never till now 
seemed to have enough of them.” 

“ This is the realization of a dream to me,” said 
Islay in a low voice, fixing his eyes on her face with 
an earnest expression. 

Guelda’s glances were still wandering round, how- 
ever, in ever new delight, and she hardly noticed him 
in her innocent occupation. He went on in a more 
ordinary voice, seeing his attempt at an impression 
had failed. 

“You admire roses more yourself, but tome the 
lily is the queen of flowers. Just look round you and 
in the mirror, and say you agree.” 

His new divinity laughed. She saw his meaning, 
for in all the charming fairy bower there was no 
white lily to be seen, though the one great mirror at 
the end reflected a slender snowy vision that stood 
the central point of all. 

Another pair of eyes, looking in past a heavy silken 
curtain of the doorway, thought so too ; while their 
owner murmured, half-un willingly in his heart, “A 
lily woman crowned with gold.” His glance too, like 
that of Islay’s, was admiringly watching every turn 
of Guelda’s neck, curved like the stalk of a lovely 
flower; but there was a curious discontent — almost 


44 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


self- anger — in this man’s expression, as of one drawn 
against his better judgment. He did not go away, 
but lounged apparently idly by the door. 

The couple within sat down on a low divan 
embedded in flowers, and commenced a desultory 
conversation — happy talk that came, as if all lighted 
up with the sunshine of her mind, from the girl’s lips. 
The duke was rejoiced to hear her; this was just as 
he thought and hoped, he told himself. She still 
remained fresh and unaffected and fearless of the 
world in her new surroundings, as in the days when 
she was a simple forest girl — a gentle savage, as 
Grizel had said. 

“ Then you are perfectly and truly happy ? Pray 
tell me ! ” Islay asked, looking in Guelda’s face with 
an interest few women had ever seen in his own 
before — for he was no squire of dames, this cheery- 
faced young man, the model of a country gentleman 
and sportsman. “Is there anything you have still 
left to wish for in your new life ? From what you 
say you seem — what I have never known a woman to 
be before — utterly content.” 

“ Is anyone ever utterly content, I wonder ? ” she 
answered, as if asking the question of herself, a slight 
shadow stealing over her face, a tinge of regret in 
her voice. “Is there not always a little something 
wanting — the one last drop that would give the best 
sparkle to the cup — one ‘if’ to make the world seem 
a perfectly pleasant place ? ” 4 

“ I should indeed be glad to know what your ‘if’ 
is, if only it could be found or removed, to make your 
life quite happy. Will you not tell me?” 

“ A mere nothing ; a crumpled rose-leaf ; one ray 
of sunshine wanting out of the many ; one note in all 
the music ! ” laughed Guelda, a wild-rose blush just 
deepening in her cheeks. “ Shall we go back to the 
ball-room, please ? It — it seems time.” 

Her companion had truly forgotten time, his duties 
as host — everything but one fair girlish face. But his 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


45 


question had made Guelda remember more vividly 
than usual the one thing needful, as she now always 
felt, to complete her happiness in any delightful spot 
— the one want her young heart had yearned for 
while enjoying the sylvan beauty of Sheen ; and 
again when feeling steeped in classic scenes and 
southern sunshine, her mind almost overfull of admi- 
ration at Rome. Yes ; wherever she went, her brown 
eyes always wandered, hoping that perchance they 
might one day see — But always in vain ! 

The duke led his partner out of the bower of roses, 
her sweet face still tinged with that lingering blush, 
like sunset glow on snow. The next moment Guelda 
felt her heart suddenly give an up-leap within her, 
and begin to beat rapidly. Such a thing had never 
happened before. She almost felt frightened at the 
phenomenon herself, as, impulsively withdrawing her 
hold of her host’s arm, she was stretching out both 
hands to Ronald Airlie, with a sudden light of great 
gladness shining in her eyes, while her voice rang out 
in unfeigned joy : 

“ How are you ? I am so glad to meet you 
again ! ” 

She was looking in the sea-blue eyes, had recognised 
in one swift glance the rare manly beauty of feature 
— her so-called St. Michael. The sudden ardent glance 
that lit up his gaze one instant, however, the quick 
grasp in which he took her hands held out to him, 
cansed a sudden change of manner in this still simple- 
hearted child of nature. Abashed, frightened at her 
own eagerness, which seemed unmaidenly, as her St. 
Michael did not speak, though he looked at her, she 
hung her head slightly, and faltered forth : 

“ But I forgot — perhaps you do not even remember 
me. I met you only once in the Forest of Dean, with 
your friend” — looking upwards, seeking Islay’s pro- 
tecting help in her dilemma. 

Islay stood looking on. The late unusual light had 
suddenly died in his grey eyes ; there seemed to be 


46 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


something — a gravity newly awakened on his honest 
face as his gaze slowly turned from one to the other. 
But even more quickly than the change in Guelda’s 
expression, a sudden alteration, almost coldness of 
deference came over Ronald’s manner. 

So quickly came this change that Islay hardly had 
time to notice much his cousin’s action or late fervour 
of startled pleasure ; the young man had dropped his 
eager clasp of the girl’s hands, as also his gaze, and it 
was in a measured voice of deepest courtesy that he 
replied : 

“ Who that has once had the pleasure of meeting 
Miss Seaton would be likely to forget the event ? I 
have not, at least.” 

Guelda’s glance rested on the flower in the speaker’s 
coat. It was, oddly enough, only a single spray of blue 
hyacinth, set off by some maiden-hair — not a wild 
bluebell, but as nearly approaching one as could be. 
Her tell-tale face showed at once by a droop of her 
lashes that she understood. Ronald divined as much 
by a strange secret sympathy between them. The 
girl stood silent, alike too full of gladness at seeing 
him again and too shy to speak. She was expecting 
him with simple gladness to ask her to dance, to lead 
her away and talk to her. Was he not her first best 
friend in the great world outside the forest, though 
they two had only met for a few moments and said 
so little ? But then Guelda had held such long de- 
lightful talks in her mind with him ever since they 
had parted, she seemed almost to quite understand 
him, though he being a man this was more difficult ; 
and, without doubt, in these imaginary talks he tho- 
roughly understood her, and proved himself the most 
sympathising of friends and most true and chivalrous 
of gentlemen. 

Perhaps Ronald guessed something of all this, for it 
was with a grave regret in his voice that he said, 
looking at Guelda, then at Islay : 

“ I am very unfortunate in being unable to take 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


47 


advantage of the slight acquaintance your kindness 
allows me to claim, as I am obliged to leave here in a 
very few minutes. Islay, you’ll forgive me — you know 
I would stay if I could.” 

The words were uttered with a courtesy and charm 
of manner in which the speaker was universally 
acknowledged to be unrivalled. 

“ What, so soon ! Must you really go, Ronald ? ” 
exclaimed the duke affectionately. “ Why, this is 
almost as bad as if I were to desert our guests.” 

“I am far more sorry than you can be, but stern 
duty calls me away. My only pleasure after this 
moment to-night” — and he gave an expressive glance, 
as if he could not help it, at a fair face on which 
eagerness had faded to disappointment — “ my last, 
short pleasure will be one dance with our hostess 
Grizel.” 

And, with a pleasant adieu to his cousin, and a low 
bow to Guelda, Ronald Airlie slowly moved away. 

“ I believe you and my sister are rather friends, Miss 
Seaton. I am glad of it,” said Islay, in a somewhat 
absent voice. 

“ Lady Grizel ? Oh, yes ! She is very handsome 
and so kind to me.” 

“ I am very fond of my sister,” said Grizel’s brother, 
still preoccupied ; but Guelda’s next words, hesitatingly 
uttered, made him look at her in surprise. 

“ And, please, who is he ? ” 

“ He — who ? Why, Ronald Airlie, my cousin. I 
thought you knew him ? ” 

“ I did not know his name,” replied Guelda softly ; 
in her heart she thought, “ It is a singing name ; the 
syllables flow easily — ‘ Ronald, Ronald Airlie.’ It 
sounds like an old Scotch ballad.” 

Then once more they entered the great ball-room 
glittering in the lights of the massive silver chandeliers 
that were worth a small fortune ; and here Guelda’s 
eyes rapidly descried and followed the figures of 
Ronald Airlie and Lady Grizel, his cousin, dancing 


43 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

among the other brilliant couples. She was like a 
handsome gipsy, with her good-humoured smile and 
dark, bright eyes. Guelda herself danced all night 
with the “ best partners.” Many more triumphs were 
hers besides that of the conquest of the Duke of Islay, 
which, from his repeated attentions later, the universal 
consent attributed to her. 

“ O, yes,” she said to her grandfather, whose keen, 
cold face was lit up by a haughty smile, “ it was a 
delightful ball ! ” and she said the same to others, who 
all complimented the young beauty on her evident 
triumphs. But, all the same, silly Guelda felt that 
Ronald Airlie had gone too soon — gone after a mere 
few words ; and she had been so longing and hoping 
in her foolish heart all these months to see him 
again 1 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


49 


CHAPTER VII. 

All that season the beautiful Miss Seaton’s dresses 
and appearance and movements were quoted in the 
society journals. Her success was considered un- 
rivalled among the younger generation. The older 
men recalled anecdotes of the beautiful Duchess of 
Devonshire and the belles of the early part of the 
century ; their wrinkled faces brightened, their 
halting steps quickened with a rejuvenated air if her 
brown eyes flashed upon them. 

Guelda went round the treadmill of fashion as 
eagerly, untiring as any. She rode in the Park in 
the mornings beside old Lord Lyndon, her beautiful, 
black hack being itself sufficient to draw many eyes 
admiringly, when not attracted by its rider’s perfect 
seat and faultless face and figure. She was also cited 
as an heiress. Her grandfather himself told his 
relations he meant to give her a fortune of sixty 
thousand pounds ; rumour of course doubled or even 
trebled this. 

In the afternoons Guelda was driven down to 
Hurlingham or Ranelagh on the smartest coaches of 
the Four-in-Hand Club. At nights she passed, 
comet-like, from dinners to operas, concerts, dances, 
followed by an adoring train. At all the festivities 
most eagerly desired — at those most select of the 
very select, she was invariably seen. At Ascot, at 
royal balls and garden-parties, lastly, at Goodwood, 
Guelda Seaton was still the chief attraction to all 
eyes. 

Strangely enough, though praised above her rivals 
by men, she was also more so than most other girls 

4 


50 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


by women. Perhaps it'was because of her perfect 
simplicity and the belief in others’ goodness and 
beauty that beamed so clearly in her joyous eyes. 
Thinking the best of people goes very fa-r towards 
helping them to be good. Or was it because she was 
known to have refused some such excellent offers of 
marriage that envy itself could only suppose her 
foolishly romantic, or declare she had evidently 
resolved to become Duchess of Islay, after she had 
amused herself during this season. Meanwhile, it 
was to her credit that her head was not turned by 
flattery. If really found, as had been rumoured, in a 
circus or a caravan, she was properly modest. 

“ I believe the real truth is, that Guelda Seaton 
does not yet know what it is to be in love,” laughed 
Lady Grizel Airlie one day to a particular acquaint- 
ance of hers, speaking with meaning, but in a good- 
humoured frank tone, resembling that of her brother 
Islay. 

“ I do not admire myself these faultless phenomena 
of our sex who are so icily cold. Their chief 
virtue only means, in my opinion, that they have no 
heart,” answered her companion, Lady Ermyntrude 
Gamble. 

This lady was a somewhat faded beauty who had 
in by-gone summers possessed that influence over 
Islay which an older and handsome woman often 
has over a very young man. Her sway, always 
limited, was now past ; and, being herself only 
married to a rich parvenu , she resented finding her- 
self ‘supplanted,’ as she termed it, in the ducal favour. 

“ Miss Seaton is far from cold, I can assure you,” 
calmly replied Lady Grizel Airlie, who had an un- 
comfortable mania, so Lady Ermyntrude thought, for 
always defending the absent. Furthermore, she was 
passionately loyal to her few great friends, and among 
these she already gave one of the warmest corners of 
her heart to Guelda. 

“ She has a charming nature,” went on Islay’s 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


51 


sister, bent on defending Islay’s love. “ Though she 
is so much admired, she remains unspoilt and simple 
as a child. Then her behaviour to her grandfather is 
so pretty, though he is very imperious and rather 
difficult to please.” 

“ Naturally, my dear — her fortune depends upon 
it,” laughed Lady Ermyntrude, a little sharply. 

“ As if she need care for that, with the richest men 
in London at her feet ! ” was Grizel’s contemptuous 
rejoinder, with flashing eyes. “ No. And her heart is 
still, I fancy, like an unlit altar, which stands ready, 
waiting for divine fire to come down from the sky 
Not every passer-by can light it with his vulgar box 
of lucifer-matches. But, when the sacred flame does 
appear, it will burn once and for all gloriously.” 

“ Then, my dear, I am sorry for your friend. For 
the women who can only have one great love in their 
lives, and burn out their hearts with it are, I notice, 
always unhappy. They generally dress up some 
ordinary individual with all the qualities of an ideal, 
and turn heart-sick from disappointment on finding 
that the swine does not care to munch their pearls ; 
or else they cherish a secret passion for some one 
utterly out of the question — hopelessly poor, or 
beneath them in station, or with some unsurmountable 
disadvantage Well, good-bye ; I must be going” 

Lady Grizel was inwardly vexed. She knew there 
was some truth in her visitor’s words. Could it be 
also true that this young creature, whom her elder 
friend had learned to regard with something of a 
sister’s protecting fondness, had really some such 
hopeless attachment, dating from her cottage life in 
the forest ? 

“ I trust — I pray not, for Islay’s sake ! ” she said to 
herself. “ He is so utterly in love with her that he 
will never care for another woman in the same way. 
He is right to wait, however ; for Guelda is young 
and romantic enough to refuse him, as she has refused 
others, because he has not captivated her fancy. Now 


52 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


she treats him as a trusted friend — that is a good 
foundation. If she cared for any of her admirers too, 
she could surely have them at her feet very quickly.” 
Then, with a sigh — “ Well, it may all come right. 
We may all be yet happy together.” 

And for a fleeting moment Lady Grizel saw a 
quartet in her mind’s eye, of which she was one, and 
beside herself the only man she believed she could 
ever love — she had loved him since she was a little 
child. She little knew that Guelda Seaton also had a 
secret of romance hidden deep in her heart’s core, 
under its outer husk of pleasures. For the young 
beauty saw little indeed that season of him she called 
St. Michael. She only caught glimpses of Ronald 
Airlie at times, perhaps in the street or the Park. 
He never seemed to have an opportunity of 
addressing her again ; sometimes she tormented 
herself, wondering if he ever sought one. 

“ Strange — he looked so very glad when we met 
that night — that look was genuine, and he wore my 
flower!” she mused. “Yet he has never tried to 
know me better ; and Lady Grizel and so many 
others all keep wondering why he has given up 
society so much this year. They say he was the life 
and soul of all their gatherings hitherto. Perhaps 
Grizel will tell me more about him, if I have courage 
to ask, when they all come down to Sheen.” 

For, after Goodwood, a large and brilliant party 
was to be gathered within the formerly so lonely and 
desolate Abbey. Lord Lyndon seemed suddenly to 
have emerged from the long winter of his discontent 
and old age, and to have found a fresh springtime in 
the smiles of his lovely grand-daughter. Festivities 
were planned that woke up the whole country-side 
around Sheen Abbey to a sense of coming gaieties. 
Guelda would have sincerely tried to be quite content 
had her grandfather expressed a wish to live quietly 
in the country for a few months. But it was he him- 
self who declared his grand-daughter would feel dull 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 53 

without pleasant companions ; whilst he was able to 
see her enjoy herself, the sight made him quite young 
again. And she, bright young soul, was as glad as a 
bird ; for, though very grateful, and also unselfish, 
towards her grandparent and benefactor, still she was 
as fresh and unsated with amusements as any child. 
Indeed, constant society, friends, and the incense of 
admiration were all fast becoming a daily necessity to 
the lately poor girl who had picked forest bluebells 
for market, and who had wept when she lost her 
work in a farmer’s dairy. 

“ And, if I am very busy, there will be no time 
for thinking about him ,” sagely concluded the envied 
young beauty, trying to feel brave and wise, and 
not to long to catch the sunbeam that ever flickered 
ahead in the distance. 

Islay was also glad when he looked forward to the 
prospect of being with Guelda in the leafy glades and 
sylvan scenery of Sheen Abbey. 

“ It is so noisy and crowded and glaring in Town 
now,” he thought to himself, having stayed far later 
than usual, and given up for this year his accustomed 
fishing-trip to Norway, to the surprise of his friends. 
“ Down there she will be more alone ; and 
perhaps she will learn to care a little for me. Here 
I have so little chance with a pure, high-minded girl 
like her, who cares nothing for my coronet, I can swear, 
and who is surrounded by so many men better fitted 
to win such a dainty creature than a commonplace 
dull-brained fellow like me.” 

One thought especially made Guelda eager to go 
home, yet shadowed her anticipations of sunny days 
to come. Bertrand — her little Bino — had been sent 
back to Sheen from school some weeks ago in delicate 
health. There was nothing specially the matter with 
him, the doctor reported, but he would require home 
care and plenty of nourishment for a year or two. 
Guelda felt — O, very sure that she .could easily nurse 
him into health again, and was, woman-like, glad at 


54 • 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


the thought of having her petted little brother back 
in her sole loving care. But still, fears that he might 
inherit their mother’s delicacy of constitution gave a 
serious look to 'her great brown eyes and dimmed her 
smiles. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


65 


CHAPTER VIII. 

LORD Lyndon had returned to Sheen Abbey and 
thrown open his long-closed gates with a hospitality 
that astonished the neighbours and retainers, accus- 
tomed to hear of him only as a solitary and aged 
recluse. Guelda reigned as mistress of his household, 
with a brightness recalling her grandmother to the old 
county families who used to visit at Sheen in Lady 
Lyndon’s long-past days. 

It was August, and, under the full heat and glow 
of the summer sun at its greatest strength of the year, 
mother earth lay as if her heart felt mellowed, resting 
in fruition of happiness, while the harvest grew 
golden over the land. Gay voices echoed along the 
stony corridors of Sheen Abbey, where once the 
old monks walked with downcast mien or sat 
illuminating their missals by the stone-mullioned 
windows. Light laughter and music flooded the old- 
fashioned rooms of Sheen in the evening, where over 
the dark waxed floors glided groups of dancers ; and 
bursts of song, among which Guelda’s thrush-like 
voice held most hearers entranced, came from the 
music-room that had once been the refectory of the 
old Cistercians. By day, amusements succeeded 
each other, ever bright and new, as rose the old 
fountain’s jets of water, sparkling high in the sun- 
shine in the little “ Abbot’s flower-garden ” on the 
south side of the house. There were rides and 
picnics in the forest, garden-parties, and impromptu 
polo and tennis matches. 

“But these gaieties of ours are all too like each 
other ; there is so little difference in our soap- 
bubbles ! ” laughed Guelda one morning to Islay and 


56 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


his sister. She was standing in a white dress out of 
doors on the grand terrace, and her fingers were idly 
breaking off some roses flowering over a low wall 
before them. Half unconsciously she then fastened 
the flowers to her waist-belt, not from vanity, but 
because she loved flowers — above all, roses —so 
dearly. “Lady Grizel, I have an idea. Will you' 
come away with me for one little half-hour this 
morning and let us talk it over ? It will be very kind 
if you will help me.” 

“ I will help you in any and every way I can, 
gladly: only in return I wish you would call me 
simply ‘ Grizel ’ in future,” answered her friend. 

Lady Grizel was one of those rare women who 
sometimes conceive an affection for another of their 
sex as strong and as pure and tender as that most 
unselfish of human attachments, the love of sisters. 
Was it because the love with which her warm 
womanly heart was full had as yet met with no 
sufficient return ? The last few days had ripened her 
friendship towards their young hostess into an un- 
changing affection ; she seemed also to look at the 
lovely face before her through the eyes of that only 
brother to whom Lady Grizel was deeply attached. 

Islay at this moment was watching Guelda’s 
changing face and the light on her golden hair with 
an infatuated expression as if his gaze must needs 
follow her with the submissive watchfulness of dumb, 
dog-like devotion. 

It had been worse for his peace of mind to see his 
love here than only in crowded London drawing- 
rooms. Standing in the morning breeze and sun- 
light, with the roses climbing over the parapet before 
her and two wide-spreading cedars of Lebanon 
making a dark background to her slight white figure, 
Guelda looked — as he had first thought her in the 
forest — a child of nature, bred up in the grand 
temples of the woods, who had drunk in truth, sim- 
plicity, and beauty of soul, as of face, with every breath. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


57 


“ May I not come into your council too ? ” Islay 
pleaded. “ All I ask in return for beating my brains 
in your service is that rose-bud in your hand.” 

“ O, you shall have it — a free gift ! ” said Guelda, 
with such ready simplicity that he felt vexed. “ But 
as to my idea — no, no, duke ; you are too practical, 
I fear, and would smother my little germ of a fancy 
with some common sense at the outset. Wait till it 
has grown stronger. Come then, dear Grizel ! 
Shall we go to that wood you* see beyond the yew 
alley? There is a favourite spot of mine there I 
should like to show you.” 

As these two went away, side by side, down a long 
narrowing arch of ancient sombre yews, Islay waited 
and watched Guelda’s white dress flutter out of sight 
like a vanishing cloud. 

“ Why does she never take me to see her favourite 
spots, as she does Grizel, I wonder ? ” he said to 
himself. And then he thought again, “ I wonder if she 
gave her bluebell to Ronald that first day we met in 
the forest as frankly as this rosebud to me ? ” Poor 
Islay ! He felt himself essentially such a common- 
place, though, he hoped, a well-meaning man. 

Meanwhile down the yew walk the chdtelaine of 
Sheen was unfolding her late-born idea to Lady Grizel, 
who listened with surprise, but joyous sympathy. 

“To have old English revels? It is indeed a 
delightful idea — and like you, because it is a little 
unlike other people,” the latter exclaimed, brusquely, 
linking her arm in that of the younger girl, with an 
affectionate squeeze that was a very rare action 
indeed with her. 

“You are always so kind to me!” said Guelda, 
feeling the more grateful because this sisterly 
affection was a new thing in her life. To little 
Bertrand, to her grandfather, it was she who was 
always accustomed to show sympathy, patience, 
above all, love — not so much to receive any of these 
three. She explained all the more eagerly. 


58 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“ You know there is a splendid harvest, and of 
course there will be thanksgiving service later in 
church. But at Christmas, when we offer a far more 
solemn rejoicing, good cheer and mirth are established 
also by old custom. Surely to have always a 
Harvest-day would be a pleasant break in the dull 
lives of the country-people here ! One reads of 
merry England when May-day was kept with such 
frolics ; and then there was St. John’s Eve, and many 
another high day and holiday. Well, I know what it 
is to be poor and live in a cottage, and never, never 
to have a beautiful sight to see and think of for days 
afterwards. And, because I am so happy now, I 
should like to give the poor people around some 
brightness in ther lives too.” 

Then both girls tried to sketch out the programme : 
games and feats of skill, with prizes for those who 
excelled. Lastly, some kind of pageant to mark the 
day and season. 

“ Ceres in her chariot, with yourself as the goddess,” 
suggested Lady Grizel. 

“ Whatever it is, I think our idea should be English, 
as much as these oak-trees around and the foresters 
themselves, who, grandfather says, are true Britons, 
as their forefathers were before the Normans came,” 
answered Guelda. 

“If only Ronald were here — Ronald Airlie, he 
would help us as no one else could. His ideas are as 
romantic as your own', dear ; he should have been 
born in the time of King Arthur, and gone wandering 
through the land in search of dragons to slay and 
fair maidens to rescue. “ But I forgot, you hardly 
know him.” 

“ Hardly,” returned Guelda, faltering. “ Would 
Captain Airlie perhaps be persuaded to come here ? ” 

“ I do not think so,” said Lady Grizel, drily, with a 
peculiar intonation, as if thinking of some remote 
reason. “ Here ; no ! He is wayward and strange in 
some ways. But he will be staying with us next 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


59 


week ; for our home has always been his since he was 
left an orphan. Your revels cannot come off for three 
weeks ; meanwhile, I will ask him for hints.” 

“ Pray do ! I am certain he can tell us better than 
anyone what to do,” cried Guelda, with a deeper 
ring in her voice and brighter light in her brown eyes 
than was usual. She added, explainingly, “ That is, 
because you say so ! And now, how would this very 
spot suit for our woodland theatre ? ” 

The two girls had reached an open glade where the 
yew alley merged into as wild a little bit of woodland 
scenery as any in the heart of the great forest beyond 
there. Wild, for the turf had never been tilled nor 
the trees known ring of axe, maybe, in all the 
centuries since first the monks reclaimed this outlying 
valley from the forest wilderness. And this wood 
had been part of the preserves in which they alone 
hunted the deer that were royal property in the forest 
yonder. 

Though the Abbey and its lands were taken from 
the church and given by bluff old King Harry the 
Eighth to one of his favourite barons, change of 
owners brought little change to Sheen Abbey and its 
surrounding demesne. The fish-ponds were still 
kept stocked, the garden well-ordered with its herbs 
and clipped bushes, its pleached alleys and fair grass- 
plots. And likewise this deer preserve had remained 
untouched. 

“See,” pointed out Guelda — “the bank opposite 
that rises so abruptly to the wood above is shaped in 
a semi-circle. The spectators could sit there the 
while the sports go on below, where the grass is almost 
as smooth as a bowling-green. And to right and left, 
along these vistas, through the oak-trees, our procession 
can be seen coming and going. 

Lady Grizel agreed warmly to the plan. Then the 
two friends, sitting down on an old stone bench 
ending the alley, enjoyed the morning freshness of 
the air, and dreamily looked away at the distant 


60 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


peeps of the hills around seen through the oak 
branches here and there ; while all the silence about 
there was full of an undertone of sound like a faint 
hum ; noises from the busy world of smaller life of 
insect and creature which our human ears so seldom 
stoop to hear. But Guelda Seaton heard ; and only 
after some time spoke, and that because she was very 
glad. 

“ One can live a true life here,” she' said, softly. 
“ Under the trees and in the stillness I seem my own 
self again. Out in the rush of the world and the 
roar of town and trains and crowds, a strange feeling 

overpowers me But I forgot ! It is selfish and 

rather ill-mannered to talk much about oneself, my 
grandfather says — is it not ? ” 

“ Not to those who wish to listen, and really care 
for you,” said Lady Grizel. “ I do care ! What is 
your feeling ? ” 

“ It is as if I am only an unit in a brillant pro- 
cession that is always passing onward, onward. And 
faces look down from the windows as we go by, some 
of them so friendly and smiling, one would like to 
stay and speak to them, shake hands, and perhaps 
rest with them awhile. But, no — we must go on and 
on with the crowd, none of whom seem to care for us 
or understand us as those we leave behind might. 
Only when moments come like this, I seem able to 
rest and think, and feel myself an individual again, 
with my own thoughts and wishes.” 

“ It means, in plain English, that you already have 
a taste of the surfeit of society we all get, or those of 
us worth anything. Ours is a false life, for beings 
with minds and souls, if we keep for ever repressing 
our best aspirations and amusing ourselves like so 
many fashionable dolls,” returned Lady Grizel. 
Then, with a small sigh — “ I am often far more sick 
of it all than you, and only keep on ‘ going out * to 
balls and parties and the rest of the mill-round, just 
to please Islay. But perhaps — unless some change 


THE FBEARS OF LADY FOBTUNE. 6l 

comes in my life that never may come — I shall throw 
it all up, and leave the world, as people stupidly 
call it.” 

“ But what will you do ? Go into a convent ? ” 
ejaculated Guelda, amazed. “ You who are so bright 
and cheery always, and so handsome. O, don’t, dear 
Grizel. It would be like stepping alive into a tomb.” 

Certainly a glance at Lady Grizel did not show an 
apparently likely votary for the still, rapt seclusion of 
a cloister. Her black eyes sparkled with vitality and 
animal spirits, that also tinged her brunette com- 
plexion with warm crimson, and betrayed itself too in 
slightly dark shade on her upper lip. There was 
determination written in her level black brows and 
strongly shaped chin ; but good-nature beamed 
broadly in her smile. No submissive sister, no quiet 
nun she ! 

“Not I 1” Lady Grizel answered for herself, with 
a little laugh that had its undertone of pathos. “ I 
want to be doing some work — toil — anything that 
will use my muscle and wits and rude health. Don’t 
be surprised at any freak you may hear reported of 
me ; you will know it is a plan that is maybe ripening 
in my mind now. There are too many unemployed 
women like myself who might sing in the street, 
‘ We’ve got no work to do.’ ” 

“ But are there no duties — that is, work — in your 
station also ? ” 

“Duties — yes, plenty. But most are for the 
married women. I trust to see you a shining 
example of them, my dear, one day. You would 
make a delightful duchess ; no one would wear a 
diamond coronet and peeress’s robes with a finer air 
or more grace and dignity. Ronald Airlie, my 
cousin said so one day ; and he is the best judge I 
know, so you may be proud. Then in reality, though 
you are not dazzled by rank and riches and power, 
they seem to come so naturally to you that they are 
no more than keeping a gig and having a yearly new 


62 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE 


bonnet would be to a farmer’s wife. It must be an 
inborn instinct. I have seen many a poor man’s wife 
wasted on a millionaire. Now I should not be a good 
stewardess of ten talents. Either I should get bored 
even as often now by the publicity, and the pageants, 
and the wearying, useless so-called pleasures that are 
social duties in a high position, or I might throw 
myself too utterly into them, and forget all better 
things. I should make a good poor man’s wife.” 

Guelda had stooped, pretending to gather some wild 
thyme that was sending up its crushed fragrance 
under her feet. A hot flush had risen to her cheeks ; 
but, though she understood Lady Grizel’s allusion to 
being a duchess, it was no thought of Islay that 
stirred her pulses. Ronald Airlie’s praise, even 
though only repeated, had set her heart beating. 

“ Then you, too, may marry even a poor man, as 
you say — and that will interfere with your mysterious 
plan,” she answered, with a shy grace that was as 
specially her own as the scent of may-blossom is to a 
day in spring. 

“Yes, I might!” scoffed Lady Grizel, good- 
humouredly, in a tone implying, “ but more likely I 
might not.” 

Then, springing abruptly to her feet, she said “ Shall 
we go back to the Abbey now ? ” 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


63 


CHAPTER IX. 

Three weeks later, another and still larger house- 
party than the last almost overfilled the many old 
rooms of Sheen Abbey. 

The Abbey itself was one of the most perfect 
surviving specimens of such ancient homes of religion, 
learning, and husbandry in turbulent times. It had 
been built not far from the outskirts of the Forest of 
Dean, which covered the hills westward with rolling 
masses of verdure. The first abbot had chosen for 
his demesne a small but lovely valley, somewhat 
Swiss in its scenery, being steeply surrounded by hills 
clad with oaks and dark fir-trees. A stream slid, 
brown but clear through the rich, low green of lawns 
and meadows, feeding the fish-ponds and fountains 
of the garden. At one end of the valley this rivulet 
was spanned by a bridge belonging to the high road, 
which latter, after one peep at the secluded valley, 
passed out of sight among hills and woods. 

The great Abbey itself lay solid, as if built for all 
times. Its once entirely leaden roof, that had been 
stripped in troublous times for the old faith, to cover 
half the churches round, gleamed again dully under 
the sunshine. All around there ran battlements that 
had done good service in their day, the thickly-green 
lichen on which, besides carved gargoyles here and 
there — projecting, grinning heads — gave perhaps the 
greatest look of age to the venerable pile. Elsewhere 
its solid walls and mullioned windows, filled with 
honeycomb panes, were softly veiled or wreathed 
round with creepers, roses, wisteria, and ivy besides 
starry jasmine and feathery clematis. The cloisters 
along one side were closed in by means of stained- 


64 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

glass windows, and adorned with palms and shrubs, 
making a cool retreat in summer and in winter a walk 
warmed with hot air. The old chapel had been 
modernised in early Georgian days. 

Indoors the principal entrance led into a stone 
banquet-hall, wide and very high, with a great fire- 
place, of which the panelled walls were hung with all 
kinds of armour, strange old pictures, and many 
rarities for curiosity-lovers. From the hall rose the 
grand stair-case, with its flights of dark-polished, 
shallow steps and baluster-rails, a marvel of thickness, 
while short pillars at each turn were carved with 
birds and foliage and upstanding baskets of flowers 
in solid oak. This led to the principal reception- 
rooms, severe and lofty in style, with bare, shining 
floors of dark old oak and folding doors as high as if 
designed for giants, the walls here draped with 
splendid Gobelins tapestry illustrating the parables by 
means of gigantic figures ; the painted ceiling 
representing an earlier and very different phase of 
religion, namely, the loves of the Greek gods and 
goddesses. 

Downstairs, however, there was a suite of more 
comfortable living-rooms, less gorgeous but more 
homelike. A flight of three broad steps led from the 
banquetting - hall to a dining - room, which once 
perchance had been itself the wide dai's, but now only 
gave a prevailing idea of stamped and gilt Cordova 
leather and carved chairs. Then came two 
modernised sitting-rooms, the same which had first 
impressed Guelda with the dainty hues of their blue- 
and-rose satin prettiness. They had been furnished 
in French style for her grandmother. Lord Lyndon 
inhabited, farther on, a magnificent but sanguinary- 
looking apartment, all hung in dark red silk. But 
Guelda had chosen for her own special retreat the 
“ blue tapestry chamber,” which had been the 
favourite “ ladies’ retiring-room ” in the days of the 
Stuarts, and that seemed still faintly redolent of by- 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


65 


gone pot-pourri jars, mingling with its present sweet 
odours ; where all was so unchanged in the 
embroidered blue hangings and inlaid, quaint 
furniture that cavaliers with flowing curls and dames 
with little lovelocks fringing their foreheads, could 
they return from the dim past, would mark no 
difference here, save the touch of Time’s fingers, after 
the lapse of two centuries. 

The night preceding the celebration of the harvest 
revels had come ; and the great reception-rooms up- 
stairs were thronged with a goodly company. Among 
these were the Islay party again, Lady Ermyntrude 
Gamble — who had successfully angled for an invita- 
tion by making herself agreeable to Lord Lyndon — 
her vulgar millionaire spouse, and other guests of 
note. Of these, Guelda especially liked old Sir 
Julian Inglis, the same white-haired diplomatist she 
had once overheard upon the stairs praising her 
beauty, about which “the town had gone mad.” His 
favourite role was to be the confidant and friend 
of those whom he singled out as distinguished among 
the rising generation. 

But the main portion of the party consisted of 
young men and maidens. There were friends of 
Islay, and several of Ronald Airlie’s brother-officers 
in the Guards, eager to try their skill in tent-pegging 
and feats of arms against gay Carabiniers and 
Lancers, with others of less martial but equally 
athletic capabilities — men who had combined sport 
with travels or had made themselves known already 
in politics, art, or literature. 

“ Some of the best in town,” murmured old Sir 
Julian, approvingly, surveying them through his eye- 
glass. Then, scanning the faces of the gentler sex, 
the ancient critic turned to Guelda, beside whom he 
stood. 

“ I make you my compliments, Miss Seaton,” he 
observed, with a smiling glance in his shrewd eyes. 
“ You have indeed gathered a bevy of fair women, a 

5 


66 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


set of brave men. No selection could have been 
better made.” 

“ Except that most of them tell me it is such a 
pity that Captain Airlie is not of the party. Every- 
one declares he ought to be here ! ” said Guelda, 
artlessly. “ I did send him an invitation through the 
duke, for he kindly gave Lady Grizel so much help in 
arranging our revels ; but he either would not, or 
could not come.” 

“ Much better without him, then ? Why should he 
take such airs — eh ? ” sharply uttered old Lord 
Lyndon, who stood close by, adding an oath that 
startled his grand-daughter. 

Sir Julian blandly hastened to change the subject, 
seeing a deep frown on his host’s brow. 

“ Miss Seaton makes the most charming chatelaine 
I have seen for years, Lyndon — so I have been taking 
the liberty of telling her. She is quite a picture, with 
her little brother, like a pretty page at her side.” 

Bino, as the old diplomatist spoke, was pressing 
shyly close to his sister, and seemed indeed to have 
stepped out of another century in his black velvet 
costume and costly, old, point-lace collar and cuffs, 
chosen for him by Guelda. Her own dress was a 
triumph of art, of palest rose, with “ sheen of satin 
and glimmer of pearls ; ” she looked radiant as 
Aurora’s self. 

The old lord turned his sternly cold gaze on the 
pale-faced boyish figure, with its still elfin locks, and 
great black eyes. 

“ Yes, Bertrand is always dangling at her apron- 
string. Send that boy to bed, my dear. He will 
never grow to be a man if you cosset him, and yet 
spoil him, as you do. And you had better get up 
dancing for your guests, child, or they will be want- 
ing Heaven knows whom or what next ! ” 

He turned sharply away, while little Bino, after 
receiving a stolen tender caress from his sister, shrank 
out of sight in an opposite direction. The latter 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 67 

turned to Sir Julian with a shade of perplexity on 
her fair brow. 

“ My grandfather seems vexed. Can you tell me 
why ? You always seem to understand everything.” 

The old diplomatist hemmed. He understood, 
remembering an old, old family tale, but did not like 
to tell her. 

“ A mere shadow, my dear. You know how a pass- 
ing cloud will throw a shadow suddenly on a hill-side 
that may be otherwise all sunshine ; a single word, an 
association, any trifle may bring such a cloud back 
to the minds of us old people. We have storehouses 
of them garnered up during our past troubled lives. 
Do not concern yourself; it is nothing you know 
about.” 

“ Yes ; but if I knew, Sir Julian, I would so gladly 
avoid bringing the shadow in future.” 

“ Time enough,” murmured the old man. “ If 
necessary, some day I may perhaps tell you.” 

They were moving towards the ball-room, to obey 
Lord Lyndon’s behests, and thus ended their colloquy, 
Guelda’s liquid glance conveying her thanks, for she 
liked and trusted her old friend. Then she called 
on Islay to aid her in beginning the dance, for he 
was her faithful squire in all matters, and, indeed, had 
been standing waiting and watching his opportunity 
to approach her. There was a band in the house, 
hired against the morrow’s festivities, and presently 
soft witching strains stole out from the musicians’ 
gallery overhead, setting feet and pulses alike beating 
to Strauss’s waltzes. 

“Will your grace help me by finding a partner?” 
said Miss Guelda, dropping a pretty mocking curtsey, 
for she knew Islay was a better knight in field than 
hall, more at home on a moor or on deck of a yacht 
than on a polished parquet. 

“ I will dance with you if I may ; but I hate 
dancing with other people,” he answered sturdily. 
“ You are such a fairy, it is like gliding tg waltz with 

5 * 


68 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

you,” added her infatuated admirer, who did not 
dance remarkably well himself. 

“ As you please,” smiled the girl ; adding a little 
pleadingly under her breath, “but, if I give you this 
first dance, will you do me a favour, and yet not be 
vexed, do you think ? ” 

“ Anything you wish — that is, anything I can do,” 
said the young man, eagerly, ardently. 

“ Ah, but it is to do nothing but to wait for me ! ” 
explained Guelda, hesitatingly. “My poor little 
Bino l He never will sleep unless I go to see him 
when he is in bed. Grandfather would be vexed if 
he knew. You do not mind? Thank you — thank 
you ! I would rather ask you to do me a kindness 
than anyone else ! ” 

“ Is that true ? Is that really so, Guelda — I beg 
your pardon, Miss Seaton?” exclaimed Islay, with a 
slight tremble in his voice and a glance of fervid 
admiration, as he led her out of the ball-room and 
down a corridor, where they were alone. 

Guelda was a little startled at the sudden gleam in 
his eyes and the suppressed excitement, which 
showed Islay attached far more meaning to her 
words than she had intended they should convey. 
She felt friendly towards him — so friendly that, in 
her impulsiveness, the girl had forgotten, or not 
rightly known, her power over this man, who so 
honestly loved her. True, he had never yet said so, 
but others had hinted it — she herself divined his 
secret. With a little coldness in her sweet voice, 
yet a frank, kind gaze, Guelda withdrew her hand 
from his arm, answering : 

“ Yes ; of course it is true, as I am not ungrateful. 
Your sister has been always so very kind to me — 
indeed, Grizel is my best friend. You, too, were 
perhaps my first one, and partly the cause of my 
present happiness, by your help when my grandfather 
was nearly killed that day in the forest.” 

“ I — and Ronald Airlie,” muttered Islay audibly 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


69 


perforce honest to the absent, though gnawing the tip 
of his moustache with disappointment. “ And that 
is all ? May I not hope for more — someday?” he 
humbly asked, with a longing look that smote his 
hearer like a reproach. 

“ That is all,” she firmly replied, adding however, 
with a woman’s pity, anxious to offer some balm to 
his wounded feelings, “ but surely that is a great deal 
— more than I have offered to any other man — my 
true friendship.” 

She would have left him, but he stopped her by an 
appealing gesture. 

“ One minute. I understand — I thank you. I am 
glad you consider me as a friend. Will you do 
more; think of me as an elder brother? You are 
young, beautiful, but almost alone in the world, for 
your grandfather is an old man, and little Bertrand 
still a child. Remember, some day you may need a 
man’s disinterested advice and even assistance. But 
for whatever it may be — the smallest or the greatest 
thing — will you promise to ask my aid ? Believe me, 
it would be the truest pleasure you could do me ! ” 

His tone was so manly, so self-denying, his look 
so entirely seconded his words — for there was a 
sadness, yet utter loyalty, in his eyes — that Guelda’s 
heart was moved. 

“You are very good,” she softly said. “Indeed, I 
would gladly come to you in need.” 

“ Promise me, then ! ” Islay urged, holding out his 
hand. 

“ I promise,” returned Guelda, laying her small 
palm a second in his broad clasp. 

Islay stood looking after her slight figure after it 
had flitted away. 

“ I asked her too soon,” he said to himself. 


70 


THE FKEAKS OF LADY FOKTUNE. 


CHAPTER X. 

It was the day of the harvest revels at Sheen Abbey. 

From two o’clock a steady stream of country folk, 
mingled with the carriages of all the gentry around 
for miles, had poured through the lodge gates towards 
the scene of the festivity. A roar of applauding 
welcome along the line greeted presently several 
great open-air vans tightly packed with “ free 
foresters,” Guelda’s old friends and neighbours. 
Every man, woman, and child of these carried an oak 
bough in their hands, with perhaps a sprig in the hat 
as well, so that the forest seemed sending greeting to 
to the harvest lands with picturesque effect. Like- 
wise, many of the country people brought posies, and 
some of the young men had trimmed their caps with 
ears of corn in honour of the harvest revels. 

The sun was shining in royal majesty. Towards 
four o’clock his beams still lay wide and warm over 
the land. But the hill-side on which the people sat 
in serried ranks on the grass was sheltered by the 
oak woods behind, only the topmost boughs of which 
were touched to bronzed gold by his rays. A cobalt 
sky above ; a green woodland view around ; in front 
a grassy amphitheatre, ringed by expectant faces. 

The revels began with some sports for the country 
lads, such as wrestling and throwing heavy weights. 
These were now over, and Lord Lyndon himself had 
given the prizes, standing before a gay tent adorned 
with flags which sheltered all the ladies of the 
assemblage. 

But this prelude only whetted curiosity. All were 
waiting on the tiptoe of expectation for what should 
follow. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


71 


Presently an eager murmur ran through the crowd. 
All heads were turned in one direction, then came a 
louder buzz of exclamations, swelling into a great 
roar of welcome and admiration. Down a grassy ride 
a gay procession was seen glancing through the trees, 
and in a few minutes it defiled out of the wood into 
the glade below. Instantly burst forth loud and 
inspiriting strains of music in greeting. 

First came troops of little children wreathed with 
garlands, and lads carrying flags, then young men 
dressed as haymakers or reapers and decked with 
ribbons and wheat-ears. They were lustily singing a 
harvest song joined by the voices of a number of 
village girls, who followed, and who were likewise 
gaily bedizened. 

Then slowly advanced a triumphal car, drawn by 
four white oxen, on which sat high enthroned Guelda 
herself, as the Harvest Queen. The car was in truth 
a great waggon piled around with wheat-sheaves and 
ornamented with devices of fruit, flowers, and plaited 
corn. Four maids of honour surrounded her, of whom 
Lady Grizel was one. Bertrand, in a page’s dress of 
crimson velvet, stood beside his sister, his small face 
alight with childish vanity, on hearing himself 
remarked on by the crowd as “ the future lord,” “ the 
little heir.” Behind, in another car, were grouped all 
the queen’s fair attendants and friends. But towards 
their mistress most eyes turned as the point from 
which all the radiance of the revels shone forth. She 
was dressed in a royal robe of woollen white, trimmed 
heavily with gold, such as Boadicea herself might 
have worn in her war-chariot when leading forth her 
troops to battle. A wreath of gilded wheat-ears set 
on her own as brightly golden young head made a 
crown more glorious, in the thoughts of many there, 
than any royal diadem ; and from the centre of this 
wreath a soft white veil fell in graceful folds upon the 
length of her train. Nothing could have been more 
simple yet effective. “ A goddess veiled in a cloud,” 


72 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


thought one admiring stranger there, whom none 
knew as yet, though soon he was to excite their 
keenest curiosity. 

The pageant, after passing slowly round the grassy 
ring of the theatre, halted opposite the spectators, 
where the Queen took up her place of honour. Behind 
the two cars rode a guard, at sight of which there 
rang loud hurrahs of welcome from the crowd. It 
consisted of most of the young men staying at Sheen, 
with others from the neighbouring houses, who were 
to be the competitors in the coming tournament. 
The Duke of Islay was their leader ; and all wore 
scarves and caps of their favourite colours, besides 
being got up in white polo costume. They carried 
spears with little fluttering pennons, and, to the 
especial delight of the populace, their faces were 
masked. In spite of the latter disguise, many of the 
riders were nevertheless recognised by their appear- 
ance. 

But one mysterious black mask puzzled them all. 
In passing down the ride, a solitary horseman was 
seen awaiting the procession by the edge of the wood. 
As Guelda’s car approached, this rider urged his 
splendid black horse forward by a series of bounds ; 
then, drawing rein so sharply that the fiery creature 
was almost thrown upon its haunches, he presented a 
paper on his spear^point with a low reverence. 

A murmur of surprised wonder ran through the 
procession. Who was he? None of the men 
recognised the horse, though it was such a grand 
animal that not one of them but coveted it. A name- 
less something in the new-comer’s appearance made 
the Harvest Queen’s heart suddenly flutter like a bird, 
while a wild hope thrilled through her. Her hand 
trembled as she bent to take the paper. But, as her 
eyes fixed themselves eagerly on the stranger as if 
striving to pierce his black mask, her sudden joy died 
away, for his hair was black — black as his black 
velvet scarf, embroidered in silver, or his cap. 


THE FREAKS OF. LADY FORTUNE. 


73 


No ; this was not he the mere sight of whom in 
the distance, once or twice this year, had made her 
turn suddenly white, sick with the disappointment 
of her great secret longing. This was not he the 
remembrance of whose face, looking once into hers 
in the green forest, had taught Guelda what love, 
strong as death, overmastering, such a love as comes 
but once in a lifetime, and that in few lives, could be. 

And yet — and yet, what was there in this stranger’s 
manner and appearance that moved Guelda with a 
secret trouble no other man but one had ever yet 
stirred within her breast ? Who was he ? 

The wonderment in the harvest procession con- 
cerning the mysterious stranger was at its height 
when the Queen handed his missive to Islay, who 
rode at her right hand. 

Islay proclaimed aloud a humble petition, setting 
forth in old-fashioned courtly language that the 
bearer thereof was a wanderer in this country, and 
bound by a vow of silence ; how that also, hearing 
the fame of the Harvest Queen and of her revels at 
Sheen, he prayed leave to join in the tourney and to 
strive with others for at least a smile out of her royal 
bounty, if haply he might not win the prize she 
de : gned to bestow on the worthiest of her servitors. 

“ It is granted,” quoth Guelda, calling up a gracious 
smile, in spite of that disappointment which still 
ached like a wound in her heart. 

The Wanderer bowed low, and then joined the 
cavalcade behind, mutely inclining his kead in answer 
to the laughing attempts of his hostess and her party 
to break down his reserve. 

“By Jove! the fellow sits like a centaur! Who 
can he be ? ” was murmured around. 

“ Why, one of our own set — Wyndham or Scrope.” 

“ No, no ; there they are. The one in the Guards’ 
colours, dark blue and red ; the other in white with 
black hoops. Besides, we don’t know the horse. He 
must be some one from the neighbourhood.” 


74 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

But the young county squires were as puzzled as 
the house-party. None could guess the black mask’s 
identity. A loud trumpet-call interrupted all con- 
jectures, however, for the tournament was to begin. 

In all the feats of horsemanship and skill which 
now took place on the green ring before her car, the. 
Harvest Queen’s eyes, almost against her will, were 
always drawn to follow the gallant black horse and 
its black-masked rider. Again and again he snatched 
victory from those who till now had been the favourites 
in the predictions of the on-lookers. Cheers burst 
out in expectant delight from the crowd whenever it 
came to the turn of the mysterious unknown, who 
had first enlisted curiosity and won the popular 
sympathies in his favour. 

“ He has beaten nearly all of us. Only Scrope 
and Wyndham are fit to try against him,” exclaimed 
Islay, riding up to Guelda’s car with vexation in his 
honest voice. “ I have never seen any fellow to equal 
him excepting Ronald Airlie. I wish to Heaven he 
had come ; then your prize would n'ot fall to some 
stranger whom nobody knows ! ” 

“ How do you know he is a stranger ? He would 
not need a vow of silence unless he is afraid of being 
recognised by his voice,” said Lady Grizel, quietly, 
as she sat below Guelda ; and the latter intuitively 
discerned that her friend somehow shared her own 
feelings concerning the black masker. Thenceforth 
she silently noticed that Grizel’s eyes followed the 
Wanderer’s figure with apparently as great a secret 
interest as her own. Islay, in his turn, had seen 
Guelda’s intensely earnest gaze watching the stranger. 

“ She has only eyes for him. I will try to win this 
time,” he muttered to himself. 

The next feat of skill was wrestling on horseback, 
and here Islay’s considerable weight and strength he 
trusted would tell. Meanwhile, the Wanderer had 
dismounted, and, without waiting for offers of help 
from the attendant grooms, himself took off the 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 75 

saddle from his good black, for the riders were to 
struggle bare-backed. 

Then he vaulted on his horse again with an ease 
that called forth half-envious, half-admiring comments 
from some around. 

“Fresh as a daisy, by Jove!” “Never turned a 
hair ! ” growled a discomfited rival or two. “ Who 
can he be — some jockey fellow who is hankering 
after the silver mugs ? ” 

“No matter for that ! let the best man win, gentle 
or yokel,” exclaimed Islay, in a big hearty voice, and 
swung himself more heavily than the unknown on his 
bay mare. Then, looking a fine horseman also, and a 
dangerous opponent at this game, he rode out to 
begin the contest. 

By twos and twos the wrestlers now began, shaking 
hands first in the good old fashion, to show no malice 
was meant, or would be imputed, in what was to 
follow. 

Then the horses sidled still nearer each other, and 
with feints and retreats, quick attempts of both men 
to grip each other as quickly evaded and returned, 
the play began. Soon the riders had caught each 
other, and then the wrestling took place in grim 
earnest ; swaying, gripping, changing hold with quick 
clasps of the strong arms round the body or neck of 
the foe. In ten minutes half the wrestlers were on 
the ground ; in a few more almost all the others were 
unhorsed. But through it all two still kept their 
seats triumphant — the stranger and Islay. 

At last they only remained as combatants on the 
green sward. As both men rode up and gave each 
other a somewhat grim shake of the hands, their grip 
expressed their mutual resolve to try to the very 
utmost for victory. All the spectators guessed as 
much ; the interest was intense ; in the wood behind 
a woodpecker could be heard in the stillness. 

Now they were at it, warily dodging, eyeing, trying 
each other. Even their horses seemed to enter into 


T6 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

the spirit of the strife and to be aiding their masters 
to the best of their intelligence. 

And now — now — no l they have not caught each 
other yet ! How slowly the minutes go ! Will they 
never close in? Both are grown so wary that the 
onlookers are tingling with impatience. A shout 
goes up ; the duke has caught his rival. Another 
moment, and both are free again. A second attempt, 
this time on the Wanderer’s part ; another failure. 

At last Islay, thinking to take his adversary un- 
awares, tries to seize him round the neck with a 
sudden lightning grip ; but, quicker still, the other 
stoops forward low, and catching Islay’s heel, throws 
his opponent’s leg with one vigorous heave over the 
mane of the bay mare. To his own surprise, the 
duke alights on the ground, and finds himself stand- 
ing upright on the off-side of his steed. 

The Wanderer had won. There was a momentary 
pause ; then a sudden enthusiasm for his many suc- 
cesses seized the spectators, and a great roar of 
applause rang round the grassy ring and died away 
in the silent woods. 

The tent-pegging and lemon-slicing, the tilting at 
the ring and wrestling on horseback were over. The 
last spear had been shaken, the last gallop taken ; 
the sword-play was ended. 

And now the golden sun was sinking in a blaze of 
glory behind the woods. A shrill trumpet-blast 
announced that the jousting was finished. 

The riders formed in procession and rode round the 
field, then drew up opposite the Harvest Queen’s car, 
and with some ceremony Guelda proceeded to award 
their prizes. The most of these fell to the share of 
the black-masked Wanderer. But, as he was called 
on by Islay to receive silver cups or gold pins, he 
only bowed low, and, with a motion of his spear 
towards whomsoever he had worsted, mutely de- 
clined the gift in favour of his rival. Scrope and 
Wyndham alone had wrested some honours from him. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


77 


Guelda grew more and more puzzled in mind as 
she stood in her car giving every winner of the day’s 
honours a smile he thought far sweeter, and a brilliant 
glance he found more dazzling, than any trophies 
that fell to his share. It was with difficulty she 
could keep her thoughts on her duties and her eyes 
from straying towards that black-masked figure 
sitting immovably in the saddle, who rejected all her 
gifts. 

At last Islay, as herald, announced in final sten- 
torian tones that the Harvest Queen’s prize was to be 
given to him who had shown himself in all points 
the worthiest in the late tournament. Once more 
the Wanderer was called ; but this time he did not 
hang back. 

Riding up close to the car, and dropping his 
spear-point in token of homage, he bent forward with 
a courteous, almost reverential air to receive the only 
prize of the day he seemed to covet. It was an old- 
fashioned gold ring, massive and plain, which the 
Queen, in accordance with legendary custom, drew 
from her finger to present to the favoured knight. 
Inside the circle was graven a poesy or device, which 
Guelda had herself chosen, “ Well done, well won ! ” 

As the Wanderer stretched out his hand, she 
noticed a slight jagged wound on it, where a spear 
splinter had hurt him. 

“ It is the order of our revels that the winner of 
this prize shall ride at my right hand back in our 
procession,” said the young girl, gently, a little tremor 
in her voice, unnoticed by all but herself. She was 
troubled at the secret influence this unknown so 
strangely possessed over her. 

The Wanderer seemed slightly surprised at the 
intimation, from a momentary movement he made. 
But then, with a gesture of obedient acquiescence, he 
took up the position assigned to him by Islay, and 
the gay pageant once more wound through the 
wood. 


78 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


At the entrance to the stately old Abbey, Lord 
Lyndon and his elder guests, who had returned by a 
near path, stood to receive the Harvest Queen as she 
alighted from her car. The riders dismounted from 
their horses, and, with congratulations and laughter, 
assisted the troop of fair attendants from their 
waggons. 

The black horseman alone remained mounted ; to 
all appearance he wished to beat a retreat, but could 
not well extricate himself from the crowd of reapers, 
morris-dancers and children who hemmed him in 
beside the harvest car. 

“ Hey, sir — you with the black mask,” called out 
Lord Lyndon, in his haughty voice, “will you not 
come in and share our harvest-dinner? It is your 
appointed place to sit beside the Queen of the day. 
I shall be happy to receive you as my guest.” 

No answer came back ; the stranger for a moment 
or two sat still upon his horse as if perplexed. Then, 
mysterious as ever, with a silent salute that made 
him seem more noble than even before in Guelda’s 
eyes, he backed his horse a few paces, evidently 
declining the offer of hospitality, and dropped his 
spear once more in farewell homage to the Queen. 

“Hallo — won’t you stay? Pray at least let us 
know before you go who has beaten us all so 
thoroughly to-day. You have given us a good lesson 
in horsemanship, sir ! ” exclaimed Islay, in a frank, 
cheery voice, laying his hand in a familiar fashion on 
his late opponent’s bridle. The duke loved a good 
antagonist for being stronger than himself. 

The Wanderer shook his head, but offered his 
hand to Islay, and both men exchanged a hasty grip. 
Then he cantered briskly across the park without 
once looking back, and was soon seen crossing the 
bridge on the high-road, after which he was hid from 
view. 

Many times that evening Guelda Seaton was lost 
in thought. As in a half-dream she presided at the 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


79 


great dinner given in the banquet-hall to all the 
guests of Sheen Abbey and the neighbours near and 
far. She moved through the tents where a harvest- 
supper was given to the tenantry, and smiled and 
bowed sweetly as ever in answer to the ringing cheers 
given for the Harvest Queen ; but her eyes had a 
far-away look, and, though she heard frequently that 
night wondering surmises and talk concerning the 
black-masked stranger, she seldom or never herself 
uttered a word on the subject. 


80 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER XI. 

The next week another large house-party was 
gathered together, including Guelda and many of the 
late guests at Sheen Abbey. But this time the scene 
was changed to one very different and in another 
country. They were assembled together in the Duke 
of Islay’s great castle in the north of Scotland — a 
grim, feudal pile, the cradle of his race. It was truly 
a fair and lordly demesne that stretched for miles 
around the ancient stronghold, with its pepper-box 
turrets at all angles, and old walls that had withstood 
many an attack in bygone days. At a little distance 
below the castle rolled a broad river famed in Scottish 
song and story, now foaming through beautiful glens 
where great boulders checked its flow and high cliffs 
narrowed its channel, again spreading peacefully in 
calmer scenery and reflecting fine wooded banks in 
its clear brown mirror. 

In the background of the castle spread noble 
woods of slender, waving birch and sturdy fir-trees 
mingling with strange effect. There were also great 
stretches of heather where only infant firs grew for 
miles and miles, the woods of future ages ; next came 
peeps of champaign country, of waving corn and 
meadow-land, then great, rolling moors hazily tinted 
in a purple flush, merging into tender golden-brown, 
the hues of the heather and gorse seen from afar ; 
and higher still rose, the lovely, everlasting moun- 
tains in grandeur, with patches of snow visible here 
and there on their barren peaks. 

Guelda had travelled hither under the care of the 
duke and Lady Grizel. She was, with some difficulty, 
persuaded to leave her old grandfather and Bino, for the 
latter had broken down into sobbing, though he tried 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 81 

to hide his childish weakness, at the idea of her ab- 
sence ; but • Lord Lyndon sternly intervened. He 
knew the young girl was secretly longing for the 
pleasures of Islay Castle, and all her wiles and pretty 
subterfuges in attempted self-sacrifice were sternly 
brushed aside. 

“ Pshaw ! Bertrand ought not to want her always ; 
he himself would be glad of rest — yes, of rest. 
London had fatigued him.” 

“ And I wish you to lead a bright life now, my 
child ; I must not cage my singing-bird too closely,” 
said the old man, with a tenderness of manner never 
seen in him since those long-past days when his 
young wife was by his side in their spring-time of 
life ! but now he was growing softer, even mellow to 
sweetness, as the latest pears will ripen at last when 
there is good in them. 

His old retainers could hardly recognise in him the 
same master they had feared so long. Lord Lyndon 
looked after his granchild when she left him for her 
journey, and a proud smile lit up his stern, cold face. 

“ She will be a duchess,” he thought to himself. 
“Poor Bertrand ! Well, I shall at least have atoned 
to his daughter." 

Even though tired by the long journey north, 
.Guelda was vividly impressed by her first view of 
Islay Castle. The stern grandeur of its massive 
outer walls told of a race whose sway here had been 
historical, almost equal to kingly power, who, indeed, 
still proudly held their descent as higher and older 
by far than that of several apparently more mighty 
families. And within those arras-hung chambers 
were signs of every side of continuous gentle 
culture during generations, stretching back in the 
Islay family to times when bards alone preserved 
history in their songs. 

Islay himself seemed a different man upon his 
native heath. His guest was half-awed to think how 
lately she had been lightly ordering him to do her 

6 


82 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


slightest bidding, feeling certain of being cheerfully 
obeyed ; of how, with a kindly inner forbearance, 
she had excused his slowness of intellect because of 
his trustworthy friendship. And here she saw him 
looked up to with deepest reverence by hundreds of 
his clan, whose forefathers through long generations 
had proudly worn the Islay tartan and died for their 
chiefs on many a bloody field. 

It was the first evening of Guelda’s visit. All the 
afternoon she had been resting since her arrival at 
noonday, sleeping soundly in the great “ queen’s 
bed,” with its splendid spiral bog-oak posts and its 
heavy hanging of dark green velvet lined with white 
satin. The head of the beautiful shrine was ex- 
quisitely carved in religious subjects, while a saintly 
figure in an attitude of blessing was above the 
sleeper’s head, and a silver lamp chased by Benvenuto 
Cellini swung from the centre of the couch. Till 
Guelda came, none but Scottish queens had ever 
inhabited her present suite of rooms, jealously set 
apart for royal visits ; but Islay had insisted on her 
occupying them — she was his queen. 

When at dressing-time her maid awoke her, Guelda 
presently found herself being attired before a splendid 
Venetian mirror framed in repousst silver-work ; and 
she noticed that the old wardrobes around were of 
ebony inlaid with traceries of ivory and tortoise-shell ; 
everywhere, from the splendid Aubusson carpet 
under her feet, woven with the royal arms, to the 
walls hung with tapestry, only objects of rare value, 
beauty, and antiquity met her wondering gaze. 

No girl could have looked more queenly that this 
one when her toilette was ended. She stood a mo- 
ment studying her own reflection with a smile of 
youthful vanity rare with her. A train of rich white 
satin fell behind her in graceful folds, giving peeps of 
a lining of eaa-de-Nil green. The front of her dress 
was veiled with an embroidery of water-lilies in tiny 
seed-pearls, so delicate that it was a marvel of handi- 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


83 


work, and frail as gossamer ; while the exquisite 
fit of her bodice was a triumph of a very great 
artiste in feminine costume. It seemed as though 
the outlines of her perfect figure had been moulded 
into her regal robe. Round her neck was only one 
row of pearls, but these of enormous size and price- 
less purity, from which hung a single diamond 
pendant of stones, so brilliant in their soft fire, they 
might well have compared with the famous Islay 
diamonds. The necklet was a present from her 
grandfather. “ It was your grandmother’s wedding- 
gift,” he said, a little quaver in his stern voice, when 
he had clasped them himself round her throat, before 
taking her to be presented to her sovereign. 

So robed, and crowned with her golden hair, 
Guelda passed along the corridors, a vision of beauty. 
Entering a well-lighted gallery at last, on either side 
of which portraits of the family ancestors by Van- 
dyck, Holbein, Lely, and later famous painters, hung 
against a crimson background, her steps were sud- 
denly arrested by the portrait of the former Duke of 
Islay attired in black velvet jacket, with plaid and 
kilt of Islay tartan. The pictured face was so manly 
in beauty, with waving chestnut hair, broad open 
brow, and sea-blue eyes, yet with the firm eagle 
glance of a born soldier and the expression of a true 
gentleman — firm-lipped, self-reliant — that she stayed 
enchained to gaze thereat. 

The likeness so extraordinarily resembled Ronald 
Airlie that, despite its age, Guelda could hardly per- 
suade herself that he had not sat for it. Feeling 
herself alone and free to indulge in her secret heart- 
worship, the girl stood a short time gazing at it with 
all her thoughts in her eyes ; then a low sigh fluttered 
from between her parted lips. 

It was echoed close by. Guelda started, and, look- 
ing round, gave a faint cry of alarm, catching at a 
chair to support herself, for the ghost of the dead 
original — the very presentment of the portrait — 

6 * 


84 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


stood a few steps away, silently looking a<t her with 
an intentness as rapt as her own. 

“Have I frightened you?” Ronald Airlie asked, 
springing forward to her help ; and only then the 
startled girl recognised that this was the living man 
of flesh and blood. “Forgive me — I cannot guess 
what I have done, but still forgive me ! ” 

Guelda’s face was very white, even her lips had 
paled with the sudden shock. But she tried to smile 
faintly, while her dark eyes looked full into his, just 
as they two had looked at one another that first day 
in the Forest of Dean. Both remembered that day, 
and their thoughts mutually flew back to that first 
great gladness of meeting, when perhaps they had 
vaguely seemed to themselves like two spirits who 
had been wandering through aeons of time, each 
searching for the other, and who had met at last on 
earth. 

“It is nothing,” murmured Guelda. “ Only that 
picture — it is so exactly like you ! No one told me 
you would be here ; so, when I saw you, my foolish 
fancy could only conjure up one of those ghosts said 
to inhabit such old castles as this.” 

“ My great, great grandfather died too happily for 
his spirit to feel troubled. He laid down his life on 
the scaffold for his king,” said Ronald, gently, but 
with pardonable pride, naming an Islay famous in 
the days of the Stuarts as a great and gallant soldier. 
“ I am glad you see the likeness in features ; if I were 
but somewhat worthy of being his descendant in 
qualities of mind, I should be better pleased.” 

“ But this dress — I never saw you so before.” 

“It is only the evening-dress of a Scotch gentleman 
at home,” replied Ronald, laughing. “ This velvet 
coat and the kilt of our family tartan — you will see 
many more in the drawing-room soon. Do you feel 
strong enough to face the babel in there? No?” — 
this tenderly. 

“ Yes/’ said Guelda, falteringly, in the same breath. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE.. 


85 


Yet neither stirred, and both still stood silent, full 
of a strange, almost fearful joy. At last they moved 
slowly forward, as if against their will, side by side. 
They would so gladly have stayed, but the world was 
calling them away just as they had found each other. 

A servant threw open a pair of folding doors before 
them, and they found themselves advancing together 
into a great drawing-room where some thirty guests 
were gathered. A spell must have been upon the 
faces of Ronald and Guelda ; it was the almost sacred 
bliss of their souls shining in their features, trans- 
figuring both, the girl to still greater beauty, the man 
to a yet nobler air, for a curious silence fell upon the 
buzz of conversation among the fashionable throng. 

“What a handsome pair! They seem made for 
each other,” whispered many around in different 
phrases. 

Meanwhile the two in question were happy together 
at dinner. The charm they had lately felt was still 
upon them both as they talked in a peculiarly quiet 
manner, because both felt so curiously glad. Their 
minds too were in such rare harmony that a mere 
word meant more between them than hours of talk 
with others. 

“We seem to know each other’s likings almost 
beforehand, do we not ? ” uttered the young man, 
impulsively at last in a low tone, looking for a 
moment intently in his neighbour’s eyes with a 
curious, almost sad expression. “You are just what 
I knew you must be, after meeting you that once in 
the forest.” 

“Then you did remember me?” murmured Guelda, 
quickly ; but, dropping her glance, confused, she 
added falteringly, “ And I too— I have a strange 
feeling as if we had met before or known each other 
some long time ago.” 

“ Because we are so perfectly in sympathy. What 
irony of fate, Miss Seaton, that you and I of all 
people in the world should feel this ! ” 


86 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


Airlie’s exclamation was uttered so bitterly, with 
such true regret, that the girl asked, startled : 

“ And why not ? ” 

But Ronald’s answer was drowned in a wild burst 
of bagpipes. The Islay pipers had entered the 
dining-hall, as was their custom from olden days ; 
and were marching, in all their glory of full Highland 
costume, with proud strut and warlike air, round the 
long table, playing such a blast of savage music as 
thrilled the hearts of the Scotch guests and stirred 
Guelda too, though at first she felt bewildered. Only 
when it was over she asked again half pettishly, with 

pretty glance of command : 

“ Will you answer my question, Captain Airlie?” 

“ Do you not know why ? ” was Ronald’s answer, 
with a quick searching look. 

“ Indeed, no ; I have no idea.” 

“ Them forget what I said. Our paths in life are 
likely to diverge soon enough again, and for ever! 
Meanwhile, may I drink your health silently ? ” 

As Ronald raised his glass of wine with a faint 
inclination of the head, unnoticed by any of the 
Dthers, but which Guelda knew by an indescribable 
something in his tone and look was a gesture of 
nomage and adieu, her eyes lighted upon his hand. 
She started slightly, turned pale ; and a silence fell 
upon them both — a speaking silence full of pain that 
was like pleasure. 

“ How grave you were at dinner ! ” said the duke 
later that evening to his most honoured guest of all, 
with some concern. “ Ronald is generally so amus- 
ing ; I hoped you and he would have got on together. 
What were you both talking about ? ” 

“ Of thoughts more than things ; of fancies, not 
facts, I believe,” smiled Miss Seaton, in an absent 
manner. 

“ He is not half such good company as he used to 
be. I cannot think what is the matter with him,” 
said Islay, with honest regret. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE, 


87 


CHAPTER XII. 

A WEEK of splendid sport by day and of gaiety by 
night had passed by at Islay Castle. Noble stags 
had been killed in the forest, innumerable grouse flew 
no more. There were luncheons at noon, when Lady 
Grizel and her friends joined the sportsmen by lonely 
mountain tarns or sparkling burns in birch-shaded 
glens. And every day Ronald and Guelda met, and 
said little. Nevertheless, though none but they two 
noticed aught — or at least only one pair of watchful 
eyes — they understood each other by a merest word 
fraught with meaning, a passing glance. Both felt 
they were near each other, breathed the same air, and 
were intoxicated with a like bliss that seemed a living 
dream. They were so much in sympathy that 
neither assumed to misunderstand this mutual secret 
interest. 

They had loved each other at first sight in the 
forest. Such cases are rare, yet true. They loved 
each other now with all their young passionate hearts, 
and yet no word of this had passed their lips. Why 
not ? Guelda in her girlish shyness felt almost glad 
the secret was still, as it were, safe in their two hearts. 
But Ronald was fighting a stern inward battle — one 
between pride and love. Which would win ? He 
dared not think. 

It was a hot, still afternoon. Half of the party 
who were untiring sportsmen, among them Airlie, 
were gone miles over the moors. The rest, with most 
of the ladies, were now fishing where the brown river 
met the kyle or creek of the adjacent sea-firth, that 
stretched far inland, winding under the brown 
heather-hills. 


88 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


Lady Grizel was a capital fisherwoman, and, stand- 
ing upright in a large boat, she threw her fly with 
repeated success. 

“You are like a very magician who can draw out 
the fishes with his wand,” exclaimed Guelda, as again 
and again a splash and violent bubbling of the waters 
proclaimed a fine sea-trout on her friend’s hook. 

Miss Seaton did not care herself for fishing. The 
men of the party would mostly have been too glad to 
devote themselves, if permitted, to the fashionable 
beauty and favourite of the day. Such incense was 
never wanting from her admirers ; besides, she was 
secretly considered the future mistress of Islay Castle. 
But she cared for none of them. The other ladies, 
eager for sport, like their hostess, sat for hours holding 
their rods with the patience of disciples of the gentle 
craft. Guelda felt at last maddened with the mono- 
tony of it. Her thoughts were roaming over the 
brown-purplish moors yonder where he was. She 
wanted to be alone, and to think. 

“ Grizel, may I take the little boat ? I should like 
to row myself off wherever I please,” she suddenly 
exclaimed, with a restless petulance, which of late 
some of her admirers thought a new charm ; she was 
so bright, so caressing in manner, but so wayward in 
ittle matters. 

Yet Lady Grizel was grieved to notice the change, 
though she answered, with a somewhat forced 
cheeriness : 

“Why, of course ! You are here to do just as you 
please, and to go where you like ; only try and don’t 
go into danger. You are bored, dear,” she added, 
very low, bending over her fishing-basket. “ I am 
sorry for your sake we could not go on the moors ; 
but perhaps for that of others it is as well.” 

“ I have vexed you — you are annoyed with me ! ” 
murmured Guelda, smitten with quick compunction, 
land yet not knowing why. 

“ No, my dearest ; I am only a little sorry for — 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 89 

Islay.” And Lady Grizel, her last words having been 
said very, very kindly, but rather sadly, was standing 
upright the next moment, throwing her line far and 
lightly with splendid dexterity. 

Guelda’s cheeks had a charming glow as, seizing the 
sculls of the little boat, she rowed herself vigorously 
by green islet and grassy landspit, away half-a mile 
into the silence of the water and surrounding heather 
hills. Alone now, she dropped her sculls, and a little 
trouble crept into her expression. 

“ Grizel guesses,” she murmured aloud. Then, 
“ Why not ? He is so far beyond all the others. 
What wonder I love him ? ” 

Musing of Ronald, the happy light softly returned 
to her eyes, a sweet smile played about the girl’s 
beautiful mouth. Yet she said to herself, with a 
sigh: 

“ Poor Islay ! I wish that only one man in the 
world loved me. Why can we so seldom have joy 
without its bringing pain to some other human being? 
Still he was so kind and quiet that night at the Abbey 
when he promised to be like a brother to me, he 
cannot care much after all.” 

Rowing into a tiny bay, Guelda rested on her sculls, 
and was soon lost in a happy reverie. She loved this 
soft sweet air blowing over the heather, loved this 
land of bens and glens all around. 

On the far side of the kyle not a fence was visible 
to break the expanse of moorland, rolling in reddish- 
violet vastness up the higher hills. But on the near 
side were patches of toothsome grass, where shaggy 
West Highland cattle were feeding among thickets of 
hawthorn. Guelda liked to watch them : picturesque, 
wicked-looking little creatures, with their soft-muzzles, 
wide horns, and hides as thick as that of a bison. 
They came plashing in curiosity far into the shallows, 
staring at the boat ; then, wading back, flung up their 
tails and went galloping off. 

Suddenly a loud bellow came from among the 


90 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


thorn - bushes ; again, louder still ! Our heroine 
started in fear. She was a country-bred girl, and 
no coward truly, but she knew what danger was. 
And only yesterday a gillie had told them ghastly 
tales of the little dun bull that was the terror of these 
moors. It had nearly killed several men ; it had 
gored a boy to death. The duke had given orders it 
should be shot, as no one dared kill it otherwise. 
Now the brute had got wind of a human trespasser, 
and, though its prey was still hidden from view, came 
crashing through the bushes. 

Seizing the sculls, Guelda tried to row away. Alas, 
the boat was stuck fast ! In her reverie she had 
forgotten the receding tide. The girl sprang to her 
feet and tried with all her might to shove off. In 
vain ! As she did so, a dun object emerged from the 
thicket at a little distance, and, stopping short a 
minute, pawed the ground with another deep roar 
that made the anticipated victim turn sick with 
helplessness. Only a few yards of water between her 
and this brute that often swam the kyle. There was 
no escape. 

In her despair the terrified girl gave a long, wild 
cry that echoed over the sunny water and through the 
brambly thickets, far up the brown corries over the 
wide waste moor. Yet she told herself even then that 
it was useless, that without doubt she was utterly 
alone ! At that moment the bull lowered its head 
and galloped towards the shallow bay. 

Poor Guelda grasped a scull, resolved with the 
human instinct of self-preservation to fight for her 
life, however useless the struggle. The girl was 
momentarily expecting death as the bull splashed 
into the bay, and drew nearer and nearer. 

Suddenly the sharp report of a gun rang out close 
by. A man’s figure appeared through some brush- 
wood by the water’s edge ; he was now running 
towards the boat at utmost speed. Heaven be 
praised ! he was Ronald Airlie. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


91 


The bull paused in rage and astonishment, glaring 
about him ; the shot had only arrested his course, for 
Ronald had been grouse-shooting, so the charge in his 
gun merely irritated the beast. But the boat had 
grounded not far from a spit of grass along which 
Airlie was running ; the bull had a farther distance to 
come from the mouth of the bay. 

As Airlie dashed into the water, however, clubbing 
his empty gun, man and brute both were wading their 
very hardest, one stirred by wildest animal fury, the 
other by the highest human passion — that of love. 
Love triumphed ! Even while the bull, lashing his 
sides with his tail, gave a furious bellow of rage, 
Ronald had grasped the boat, and, pushing it with a 
mighty shove into deeper water, got in himself. But 
this delayed them a few instants, during which time 
the bull, plunging boldly out of his depth, had swum 
close upon them. 

“We have him safe now,” cried Ronald gleefully 
to the girl. “ Take the sculls and row your best, 
while I fight the brute. He is at our mercy, for he 
dare not put down his head to charge, so I shall 
punish him.” 

Guelda never afterwards forgot that scene — the still 
Highland loch, tranquil under the evening sun ; and, 
rising out of the shining water, that shaggy head with 
glaring red eyes and sharp wide horns. The bull’s 
muffled roars of rage and pain long afterwards 
sounded in her ears, as Ronald, with a look on his 
handsome face that frightened yet delighted her, 
dealt the animal in stern revenge a terrible pummel- 
ling with the butt of his gun about its head and 
muzzle. 

Still the bull swam furiously after them, still Ronald 
chastised him, inexorable to even Guelda’s entreaties 
for mercy. At last the foe was beaten ; and, turning 
tail, set off in haste towards the shore, where, not 
pausing to look round, he beat an undignified retreat 
into the thickest of the bushes. 


92 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


Ronald turned to the lovely girl at his side. 

“Thank Heaven you are safe!” he exclaimed, im- 
pulsively, in a tone of such heart-felt gratitude as 
sent the warm blood coursing once more through her 
pale cheeks. She trembled — Airlie thought it was 
from her recent fear, though in truth the secret cause 
was far sweeter. “ Let me row you across the kyle,” 
he said, in gentlest tones ; “ there is a path up the 
glen that will take us straight to the castle. It is 
quite safe. I’ll come too, if fou will have me as an 
escort.” 

Guelda gave him a speaking look of thankfulness, 
yet she faltered: “You are very kind, but you were 
shooting. Do not let me ” 

“ I was shooting some miles away over there. 
Somehow I grew tired of it sooner than usual, and 
so left the others. Something drew me to the loch — 
perhaps a premonition of your danger ; but I only 
thought to join you fishing,” answered Ronald, in a 
low tone ; then, with a playful tenderness, “ What a 
little unbeliever you are ! Can you not be satisfied 
at last that I do not want to kill any more grouse 
to-day ? ” 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


93 


CHAPTER XIII. 

RONALD sculled Guelda across the kyle and pulled 
the boat ashore where a burn slipped shallow and 
wide-spread in its winter-worn bed ; then, passing 
through thickets of wild raspberries and dog-roses, 
they entered the little glen. It was indescribably 
beautiful that day. 

On either side rose seventy feet of cliff or sheer 
bank, narrowing at places till barely a rocky path 
was left beside the burn ; again widening into little 
open glades where grew wide-spread Norway pines 
whose heads almost reached the cliff-tops that were 
crowned with the heather and firs of the upper-air 
moor. Each tall tree was a silent poem of nature. 

Down in the glen, not a leaf stirred. Through its 
rocky bed strewn with boulders the burn hurried to 
the shore, gurgling here silver -voiced, murmuring 
there in deeper tones. The sound of falling water 
made music everywhere, the honeyed smell of purple 
heather filled the air. Its fresh-washed tints, after 
the night’s rain, showed on the thick clumps, that 
grew between the rocks and trees like a sudden 
surprise. The firs loomed all round redder-barked, 
darker and sturdier than usual ; the larches were of a 
more feathery green, and the stems of the bluish-* 
leaved feathery birches, seemed newly-silvered in 
honour of these two lovers. All over the high banks 
beside them the broom clung in mid-air, blackly 
tasselled with seed-pods ; and the rowan-bushes were 
aflame with their rosy-red or pale-golden leaves set 
on fire by autumn’s kiss. 

“What a little Eden this seems for our two 
selves ! ” said Ronald presently, in low tones, as he 


94 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


drew nearer to Guelda’s side, and, feeling his heart 
beat quick with the love he no longer sought to 
repress, feasted his gaze unchecked now on the wild- 
rose flush of her cheeks, the brown radiance of those 
glorious eyes half veiled by their modestly down- 
dropped lashes. 

The path was in most places so narrow they two 
could not pass abreast. Just here was a little recess 
in the overhanging cliff, which rose so fringed with 
brushwood and trees clinging to its every coign of 
vantage that only stray gleams of sunshine shone 
down golden on the moss and rocks below. 

Truly this man and maiden were a handsome pair. 
Ronald, in his velveteen shooting-coat and rough 
gaiters, with a gun on his shoulder, looked every 
inch a highly-bred gentleman. He was tall and 
broad-chested, and, though slight yet strong, as if 
wrought in steel ; and there was such human kindli- 
ness and honest earnestness to be read in those 
firmly-cut features, that handsome, open-browed, face 
and such an unusual strange light full of expectant 
great joy in his eyes, that Guelda, scanning him in 
one swift glance, felt proud in her heart of such a 
lover — for, though there had been and was still 
silence between them on this subject, they under- 
stood one another. 

With a sudden coyness Guelda tried to pass on up 
the path that had only space for one, albeit she 
wanted to stay there beside Ronald; but Airlie 
barred the way. 

“ One little moment ! ” he pleaded. “ Are you in 
such hot haste to leave me ? And yet perhaps I am 
the only one of these men here who has never walked 
beside your shooting-pony, never tried to be alone 
with you in all our expeditions this last week. You 
know that.” 

“Yes,” said Guelda, slowly; then raising her eyes 
full to his, with trustfulness brimming over in their 
brown depths, she added the one word, “ Why ? ” 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


95 


A sudden spasm of pain furrowed deeply Airlie’s 
brow ; he drew nearer, the muscles about his mouth 
slightly twitching. 

“You cannot guess? Do you know of no reason 
— none which in honour ought perhaps to hold me 
back ? ” 

“ None,” replied the girl, simply and bravely. 

The question puzzled her, but she would not affect 
coquetry on a subject that affected his or her happi- 
ness so greatly. 

“ But there are three,” broke from his lips with a 
quick deep sigh. “For the first, do you know that I 
am poor — almost penniless in the opinion of society 
— and that you, they say, may be a duchess when it 
pleases you ? ” 

“You remember how poor I was that day when 
first we met,” murmured Guelda. “ Now that I have 
tried wealth, I think it is good, but not the best thing 
in the world. I do not care to be a duchess — that is 
not my idea of happiness.” 

Airlie had rested his gun against the rock, and now 
approached yet closer to the girl, as if drawn irresist- 
ibly in spite of some other feeling that caused him an 
inward struggle. 

“ Miss Seaton,” he said, huskily, “ I feel a traitor 
towards my more than brother. Some months ago 
Islay entrusted me with a secret — his love for you. 
It is no secret now — you know it even by common 
report. He thought for a certain reason that I was 
the last person living likely to share his feelings 
towards you, little guessing the truth. Partly for his 
sake, partly for my own, I avoided you while I could ; 
but the trial has been too great for me. And now, O 
heavens ! what might he think of me — he who has 
treated me like his other self, and with whom he 
would share his fortune, I believe, if I would take 
it from him ? For, Guelda, you know I love you ! ” 

The veins on his temples swelled. He looked at 
Guelda with a yearning gaze full of a great love that 


96 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

overbore all other thoughts for the moment, as a 
strong current sweeps down straws ; yet loyalty, 
affection, and his sense of honour towards Islay were 
tugging at his heart-strings. Even at that moment 
when Airlie hoped wildly, in a rapture of anticipation 
— nay, believed from Guelda’s brave brown eyes that 
met his own glowing gaze with trusting candour — 
that he had but to ask and the treasure of his soul, 
the precious jewel he longed for, would be his, his 
very own, the thought of his friend and the conflict 
of feeling might be read in the strained expression of 
his firmly-cut features. 

Said Guelda softly, with a choking voice : 

“ There was once a rich man who had many flocks 
and herds ; and there was a poor man — whom he 
loved and who loved him — that had only one ” 

“ No, my dearest, no ! He would not willingly take 
my one lamb from me — no. It is I who would rob 
him if I could.” 

“ I think it is the ewe-lamb who would never be 
happy in the rich man’s stall,” retorted Guelda, still 
lower, breathing hurriedly, a very April of tears and 
smiles and new-born blushes on her face, which she 
tried to turn- aside, while her voice broke. “She 
would never be happy away from ” 

Airlie gave a stifled exclamation, and made a 
sudden movement forward ; but Guelda, with her 
two hands outstretched, warned him back. 

“ Listen — listen ! ” she uttered, almost solemnly, 
yet in eagerness. “ Would it make you happier to 
know that he spoke to me about this — the duke, your 
cousin — some time ago at Sheen ? Poor Islay, I 
could not look upon him as I feared he wished. 
Still he asked me henceforth to treat him always as 
a brother, and he is so good and loyal to me, as you 
see. Indeed, indeed, I do not think he can have 
greatly cared.” 

“Thank heaven!” uttered Ronald, in accents of 
the most fervent, almost disbelieving joy. “ Not care 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 97 

greatly? Impossible. But your news sets me free; 
I may dare ” 

“To be happy, if I can make you so,” answered 
the woman he loved, almost in the same breath as his 
own last words, ending his thought. 

The girl’s eyes were shining with a light Airlie had 
never seen there before; and yet it was but mild 
radiance compared with the blaze of gladness in his 
own. As their eyes met, so they drew nearer by mute 
accord ; and yet nearer 

And then there was human silence in the glen ; two 
people at least out of the many millions on earth, 
were utterly happy for a space of time. 

“ And so you have been wearing my ring since you 
won it at the harvest-revels ? ” hazarded Guelda, 
presently, with a shy, glad smile. 

Airlie started, looking down at a plain gold ring 
that never left his finger. 

“ What — you recognised it ? ” 

“ No ; but the night we came I remembered the 
scar you got on your hand that day. And even in 
disguise I thought I knew you.” 

Ronald Airlie and Guelda Seaton had taken their 
first walk together ; plainly fate meant it should not 
be their last, but that they were to be companions in 
a far longer walk on earth till one or other grew tired 
and went home. 

Between these two there seemed perfect sympathy. 
As neither could tell which had loved first or which 
now loved best, so there was hardly any thought of 
conquest in the heart of either. It all seemed a 
natural consequence from the moment they had first 
seen each other under “ the greenwood tree ; ” wooing 
and winning had been little in their thoughts when sad 
in heart these last long months. Rather the miserable 
feeling that a cruel fate had parted them as in sport 
coupled with an inward strange certainty, born of 
great love’s intuition, that if they could but meet 
neither was indifferent to the other. Happy pair 

7 


98 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


even in unhappiness ! They confided all this and 
much more to each other, sitting down by the babbling 
burn on a mossy rock overhung by the bonny broom 
and scarlet-berried mountain-ashes. 

“ Do you believe that two beings really are ever 
made for each other, destined so beforehand in some 
unknown sphere ? ” asked Guelda, confidingly, in 
her lover’s ear, with a pretty deprecation of the 
question in her voice and gesture. 

Ronald laughed out cheerily. 

“What — that in the plan of creation pairs were 
fashioned, male and female, and yet sent separately 
into the world to wander up and down seeking each 
other, and most often in vain? Certainly not ! No 
benevolent Providence, but only the goddess of 
discord, could invent so fiendish a torture for poor 
humanity. No, no ; had you and I never seen each 
other but that once, my forest-queen, we should each 
in time have loved the next best person we met in 
life, depend upon it — always supposing you do think 
me the best.” 

“ First and best and alone in my thoughts,” owned 
Guelda, in the greatness of her joy. “Yet, Ronald, 
you yourself told me you felt from the beginning as 
if we two needed no acquaintance, as if we already 
knew each other.” 

“ Because of our rare sympathy, dearest. We are 
far happier in that than most, believe me. Think 
how many beings are miserable because they never 
seem to meet their other selves in life, or, meeting, 
find it is too late, and have to content themselves as 
best they can ! ” 

“Then, if we were parted, Ronald, would you 
•content yourself without me ? ” came in low, earnest 
question. 

“Never!” uttered the young man, half springing 
up, a red flush rising to his very brow, a strange, set 
look on his face. “ What — give you up when you 
have promised to be mine? No power on earth but 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. C9 

your own will shall separate us now. What do you 
mean ? Ah, I know — your grandfather — he may not 
forgive me because my name is Airlie ! Tell me, 
Guelda, will you be true to me still in such a case ? 
Which would you choose — him or me ? ” 

“ I have given you my word ; I cannot change 
that,” she answered, greatly troubled ; then, in sudden 
pleading — “ But what do your words mean ? We 
were so happy till a minute ago. Tell me, Ronald, 
has your family wronged my grandfather ? ” 

* No — Heaven knows ! ” returned Airlie, with a 
gloomy look. “ It is always those who do the wrong 
who can never pardon ! ” 

“ Only tell me what it is ! ” entreated Guelda. 
“ Ah, I remember ! Was this your third reason for 
avoiding me? You said Islay believed you were the 
last person who would be likely to care for me.” 

“ It was my third reason,” answered Ronald low, 
bending his head so that she could not see his 
expression ; but then, after a few moments, he looked 
her gaily in the face, saying, with a laugh, “ An old 
family quarrel, sweetheart. It need not signify to us 
any more than the feuds of the Montagues and 
Capulets. Forgiveness belongs to the injured, you 
know. Well, I forgive for your dear sake. I can 
even do more — I will forget.” 

“ And you will not tell me what it is?” 

“ Another time. Let us be quite happy together now.” 

Thereupon they were perfectly blissful for a long, 
long time, while the sun slanted lower and lower. 
How they talked ! Guelda told of her old and new 
life, her bewildered feelings at the sudden transforma- 
tion-scenes through which she had passed. Then 
she confided how she had fancied Ronald resembled 
her woodcut of St. Michael. 

“ I kept that little book always with me ; it was 
the one thing I carried away from the cottage that 
night,” she owned, blushing as Ronald bent in ecstasy 
to kiss her hand. 

7 * 


100 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

And Airley, to please her, must needs sketch his 
own life from boyhood upwards — the orphan’s lone- 
liness — for his mother died at his birth, and his father 
but a little later, broken down with trouble. Then 
the coming to Islay Castle, to his only relatives and 
nearest of kin, his second cousins ; how Islay and he 
had rambled over these moors together, knit in love 
passing that of brothers ; of their first guns, and of 
Ronald’s first stag slain one holiday-time, and how 
proud Islay had been, as if the achievement both 
boys had longed for were his very own. Then he 
spoke gratefully of the dead duchess’s easy kindness, 
and how Grizel had been a sister to him. 

“ We must confide in her ! ” exclaimed Ronald. 
“ She will be so glad ! ” 

“Yes,” replied Guelda, slowly. 

“ Ah, I know what is in your mind ! ” pursued 
Ronald, wrong for once in his divination of his love’s 
thoughts. “ But, without conceit, I really believe 
Grizel has always cared for me just as much as for 
Islay, or even more. We are her brothers and you 
are her greatest friend.” 

“ Tell me of your later life,” went on Guelda, gently. 
“You went to London, you entered the Guards. I 
heard your name mentioned everywhere in Society.” 

The girl looked at him proudly. Few men, indeed, 
were more admired, praised, and loved in secret by 
women than Ronald Airlie, who had taken all his 
conquests lightly, hitherto ; fewer still were as great 
a favourite as he was among his comrades and those 
who knew him well. 

“Nevermind my life these last years. It was no 
better — I hope no worse — than that of hundreds of 
other men,” answered her lover, somewhat humbly. 
“ I liked society, but often felt alone in a crowd. 
Only for meeting you, dear, I should have volunteered 
for active service this winter, just to get my pulses 
stirred. Never mind the past ; let us talk of our 
future lives instead.” 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


101 


So they made happy plans in which the course of 
their true love ran smooth ; or, should Lord Lyndon 
frown on them, then they must be patient. Like 
happy children they babbled at times of impossible 
castles in the air, laughing at each other’s fancies. 
Like lovers they wandered hand in hand up the 
glen as the evening fell, and Guelda insisted that 
Ronald must pick her purple whortleberries that 
stained their mouths black ; and they feasted on wild 
strawberries he found here and there in crannies of 
the cliff. 

“ See here — I have far more than you ? ” laughed 
Guelda, holding out a stalk on which four or five 
crimson berries delicately hung. “ But I will be 
generous, and divide all with you.” 

“You are generous in more than that ! ” exclaimed 
Ronald, with sudden pain and passion in his voice, 
as she stood before him transfigured in her beauty by 
the evening sun that gilded her bare fair head with 
the glory as of a halo. “ Darling, do you know what 
you are doing in promising to share your all with 
me, that is so much more than mine? You are an 
heiress, they say, and the beauty of the season, 
whilst I am ” 

My King Cophetua, who loved the beggar-maid,” 
cried his sweetheart in an answering rapture of 
emotion. -For your sake I have refused till now 
every man who has asked me to become his wife. 
Henceforth, whatever happens, if even we are for 
ever parted, I will marry no other man.” 

“You promise that! ” exclaimed Airlie, in a trans- 
port of love and joy, holding out his arms to her as 
the girl stood above him on the rocky path. 

“ I promise ! ” — and Guelda stepped royally down, 
to be folded in his embrace. 

The rabbits played down the glen, and a flight of 
plover passed high overhead, bound for the loch 
where the tide was coming in salt and fresh ; grilse 
were springing up the little white waterfalls of the 


102 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


burn, which boiled and foamed with mimic roar, un- 
heeded in the ears of these two. They saw nothing 
but each other’s faces, heard nought save each other’s 
whispered words. 

Man and maid at last remembered there was 
another world outside the Eden in their hearts — ay, 
even beyond this little one of nature’s making in the 
glen around them. With footsteps that pressed 
lingeringly the springy heather-tufts, they went on 
up the ever-deepening, narrowing glen. The rocky 
path wound under high cliffs, overhung with trees 
and mantled with broom and bramble trails. The 
burn slipped among huge boulders into clear, cold 
pools, such as Dian’s nymphs would have loved to 
seek during noontide heats, and bathe their white 
limbs in, unseen by prying Actaeon. 

Up a narrow zigzag path they wandered, over 
rocky crags and wooden bridges to the upper moor ; 
through the dark fir-woods to the grand old Castle ; 
back to the world of society and of fellow men and 
women. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


103 


CHAPTER XIV. 

A FEW days later Guelda Seaton, in heather-coloured 
dress, a deer-stalker’s cap covering her bright hair, 
was slipping out alone, and, as she hoped, unobserved, 
by a postern door in the old castle, when she met 
Lady Grizel face to face. 

“Why, you are not going out?” exclaimed the 
latter. “ Look at the sky — there will be a storm ! ” 

“ Dear Grizel, don’t mind me. I am a country 
girl, you know, and not afraid of weather ; besides I 
like the fresh air and to go out alone sometimes,” 
begged the foolish guest, feeling like a culprit. 

“ But not to be alone all the time,” returned Lady 
Grizel, with a keen glance out of her black flashing 
eyes and in a brusque tone. “You are going to the 
glen, I suppose? You have grown very fond of it 
since that day when you left us fishing for trout in 
the kyle ; but you must have found something better 
worth the having.” 

“ Grizel ! ” was all Guelda answered, but in a tone 
so gentle, so touching in its loving reproach, that it 
sank into her friend’s heart deeply. Then she added 
softly, very slowly, “ Even if I did find a treasure in 
the glen do not be angry with me. I would give up 
anything else in the world to you dear, believe me — 
perhaps this ; but it is not mine to give.” 

There was a dead silence a few moments in the 
little hall. It was a small stone room, hollowed out 
of the thickness of one of the towers ; no one passed 
out this way but members of the family or intimates 
— Ronald Airlie had shown Guelda the postern door. 
Lady Grizel had turned away her head; then she 
covered her face with her hands and burst into tears. 

“ I am an ill-tempered wretch ! ” she muttered. 


104 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“ Forgive me, dear ; you know I do love you with all 
my heart — and him. No, you could not help it. I 
had imagined another future for you both — that was 
all ; so I have been cross and disagreeable during the 
last few days, as you must have seen.” 

“ Then you knew ? ” asked Guelda, amazed, 
remembering now that Lady. Grizel had looked of 
late gloomy at moments. “ Does anyone else ” 

“ No, no one else that I know of. I watched you 
going to the glen ; that was all, and I guessed the 
rest. Now go — Ronald will be waiting for you.” 

Guelda hesitated a moment ; then, coming humbly 
quite close to her friend, she whispered, pleadingly : 

“ Grizel, forgive me ; indeed, I could not help it ! We 
should have told you, but he thought it best to wait a 
little till nearer my time for going away. It has all 
been sudden, or, lather, it began the first day we ever 
saw each other in the forest.” 

She did not say why she sought forgiveness ; but 
the other must have understood, and her own proud 
heart could hold out no longer against the winning 
accents of the friend she indeed passionately loved 
better than herself, for the two girls put their arms 
about each other and wept. Suddenly, with quick 
returning pride, Grizel forced a laugh instead, and, 
recovering herself, good-humouredly pushed her visitor 
to the door, and, gaily bidding her “ Go and be happy,” 
shut her out. 

The soft air had felt strangely heavy all the 
morning. Now, as Guelda hurried towards the glen, 
there were thick clouds that seemed, so to speak, 
playing with the mountains, at times curling over 
their bare crests in coquettish grey mists, anon 
dragging heavily great masses of vapour along the 
h : gher ridges. It was a visible meeting of earth and 
sky. 

She went through a dark fir-wood like a vast 
natural hall with its carpet of heather, red-pillared 
stems, and thick leafy roof overhead. Not a bough 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


105 


stirred as the girl descended a narrow dangerous path 
leading into the glen ; hardly a needle quivered on 
the topmost feathery branches of the tall larches ; the 
stillness was intense. All at once a warning shiver 
seemed to pass over the hills ; a current of colder air 
rushed up the glen ; across the moors above a breeze 
blew at the same instant, and great drops of rain 
pattered down. 

In a few seconds the storm began. Rumbling peals 
of thunder broke across the sky, then grew louder and 
came nearer. Forked flashes of lightning played 
above the mountain-tops, and the heavy rain poured 
down thick and fast. The wind caught Guelda’s 
dress, wrapping it round her so that she could hardly 
struggle on : the rain beat in her face. • Bewildered 
what to do, for she dare not go back up the slippery 
path, through the wood, knowing the terrors of such a 
storm, the frightened girl paused to think. 

She remembered a little cave near at hand, a 
narrow fissure in the cliff, and hastened there for 
shelter. Safe herself, her thoughts instantly flew to 
Ronald. 

“ He may be caught on the open moor, coming 
down to the glen head,” she reasoned, in anxious fear. 

Islay and all the rest of the house-party were at 
that very moment in a still more exposed spot on the 
mountain-side ; but, woman-like, this callous specimen 
of her sex hardly gave them even a thought.^ Ronald 
had urged her to meet him here, as they had met 
several times of late, promising to leave the shooting- 
party early on some excuse — what lover could do 
more when staying at a Highland deer-forest famous 
through both Scotland and England for its sport ? 

But surely he was late ! An accident must have 
happened ! Guelda had barely waited five minutes, 
but she was trembling already ; brave for herself, her 
foolish loving heart was beating fast with terror for 
another. A moment more and she must have rushed 
out of shelter and struggled on her way up the glen, 


106 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

through the wild rain and fierce wind, when a man’s 
tall figure came past a rock, and a cheery “ Hallo ! ” 
answered a little cry from the cave. In a minute, 
regardless that he was as wet as any merman, she had 
thrown herself into Ronald’s arms. 

“ So you did come after all. I determined to search 
the glen through, but almost hoped you were safe and 
dry indoors,” exclaimed Airlie. 

“ Do you still wish me back at the castle ? ” said 
his lady-love, laughing lovingly up into his hand- 
some sunny face. “ For, if so, I can go this minute. 
I am no more afraid of a wetting than you are.” 

“Not for worlds!” uttered Ronald, in a deeper 
voice, holding her in his arms, and looking down at 
her, as if afraid she might really rush into danger. 
“You are brave enough to be a soldier’s wife; but, 
child, I thank heaven you were not out long in this 
lightning. Coming down to the glen I saw blue 
flame on the barrel of my gun, and a hot blast 
seemed to scorch my arm. No, no; I am not hurt 
— only a little numbed ” — as Guelda turned white and 
looked at him in anxiety. “ But think of my feelings 
if I had found you perhaps lying still and lifeless in 
the heather up there.” 

“ Or I you ! Do not separate our love, even in 
thought, Ronald, or our lives either.” 

“ No ; we ought to be struck down in close embrace, 
as I h%ve heard a ‘ lover and his lass ’ died by 
lightning, and I should have you always,” burst from 
Ronald’s lips, with a curious short laugh, but a 
vehemence that almost startled Guelda, although she 
knew that, beneath his sunshine of manner and glad 
temper, her St. Michael had a resolution befitting the 
namesake of him who vanquished Satan, with strong 
earthly passions besides. “Would you wish such a 
death as that ? ” he added, his gaze seeming to 
search into her soul. 

“Yes,” replied Guelda solemnly, “I should be 
glad if we might die together when our time comes.” 


THE FBEAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


107 


The rain still fell thick and fast for an hour or 
more, while the chariot-wheels of the old gods seemed 
rumbling across the sky, to clash together in shock of 
battle-fray, and their forked lightning spears were 
hurled in furious flashes. But these two cared 
neither for weather, place, nor flight of time. To 
them January would have been a season of blooming 
rose-buds while they were thus busily planning out 
as now the happiness in their future joint lives. 

“But I must tell Islay — I feel such a hypocrite in 
keeping our secret longer from him,” declared Ronald 
sighing. “ After all, however, he would only have 
had pain in knowing our happiness these few days, 
and we should have been rather wretched even in our 
joy. However, to-night, if I can find an opportunity, 
it will be only fair to let him know.” 

“ You did not tell him last night then ? ” 

“ No ; my heart failed me. I could noton the day 
of the gathering, when he looked so proud among his 
clansmen, and as happy as a king — dear old Islay ! ” 

“ Some one else looked even more like a king,” was 
murmured close in his ear. “ How they all cheered 
you when you won the prizes so often ; I would have 
liked to cry, I was so proud ! They shouted for you 
as often as for Islay ; and I heard some old High- 
landers saying to each other, “ If we had not so good 
a duke, yon carle would make a grand one ! ” 

“ Heaven forefend ! They and you little know ! 
Islay is worth a dozen of me,” exclaimed Airlie, in 
honest humility. “You have made a great mistake 
in choosing me, my queen.” 

“How can I help that? You are my fate,” said 
the girl, with a soothing happy laugh, as soft as a 
wood-dove’s note. 

Slowly the rain ceased — the light grew clear but 
subdued as the sky brightened. The noises of wind 
and rain ceased in the glen, and cheerful sounds of 
birds and the lesser animal and insect life broke out 
around. 


108 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


Looking down the narrow valley they could just 
see the blue strip of loch beyond which the colours of 
the fresh-washed moorland were exquisite ; wonderful 
shades of reddish- violet heather, minp'ing with the 
golden-brown of bracken and gorse, while here and 
there were tiny cultivated “ feus,” the pale hue of 
late-mown hay-fields alternating with the sharp 
emerald green of turnip patches set in the vast 
expanse of brown rolling moor, with never a fence to 
break its beauty of freedom. 

“ See there ! ” said Guelda presently, pointing to 
where the nearest dark mountains loomed over the 
glen far above the highest tree-tops. White mist 
wreaths were floating over their blue-black sides, 
assuming strange, half-human shapes. “They remind 
me of how the immortals were thought to pass 
between earth and Olympus wrapped in just such 
clouds.” 

“ Or wraiths of dead warriors riding from the field 
of battle. This is the land of Ossian,” answered 
Ronald. 

Happy though this pair were in their rock-refuge, 
yet presently the scent going up from the wet heather 
around, which had been so sweet at first, became 
absolutely stifling. The air, still moisture-laden, 
seemed an invisible, impalpable weight that made 
Guelda’s head ache, while her complexion paled. 
Ronald noticed this quickly with his usual thought- 
fulness towards all women ; especially this one. 

“You are a little faint — let us come back at once 
by the -near path.” 

“ But the shooting-party — that is their way home.” 

“ No matter ! I exhausted myself in excuses lately 
for leaving these sportsmen ; that was penance 
enough to propitiate Lady Venus, who ought to 
protect her followers,” laughed Airlie. 

They followed the windings of the burn to where 
the glen widened into a tiny garden of nature’s very 
own. It was planted with trees and carpeted thickly 


THE FREAKS OE LADY FORTUNE. 


109 


with tall purple heather ; the river wound shallow 
and murmuring round it, while the high wooded 
cliffs closed in to keep rough winds away. Crossing 
into this delightful spot and brushing through the 
broom that grew as high as themselves, their footsteps 
suddenly started a reddish object that sprang out of 
the heather, where it had been lying close. It was a 
little roe-deer that bounded in alarm through its 
invaded favourite haunt and, splashing into the 
gravelly stream, tried this way and that to scale the 
steep wooded banks, dashing at last close back to 
where they stood hidden. Guelda whispered : 

• “ How beautiful ! I do not know how anyone can 
have the heart to kill such ” 

Before her words were ended, a rifle-shot rang in 
their very ears. The little animal gave one con- 
vulsive leap, then dropped under a birch-tree, its 
blood staining the turf, while its great dark eyes were 
full of almost a human expression of anguish in its 
death-throes. Airlie gave a loud shout, as Guelda 
caught convulsively at his arm. The deer had fallen 
not a yard from her feet. 

A party of sportsmen, with dogs and gillies in 
attendance, came scrambling down the wooded cliff- 
side and wading the water towards them, Islay 
leading. 

“ What is the matter ? Who is here ? ” he called 
out ; then, confronting Ronald and Guelda, side by 
side, he turned pale, ejaculating, “You ! ” 

There was an awkward silence, some of the men in 
the background exchanging glances. - 

Ronald answered very quietly, both men exchang- 
ing a grave, steady glance : 

“ Yes, we were here. It is lucky that shot of yours 
was so true, Islay, or it might have found another 
victim in Miss Seaton.” 

“ Or yourself ! ” burst out his cousin, with a short, 
bitter laugh. 

“ I did not mention that, because it would have 


110 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


mattered so much less,”* returned Airlie, with the 
same quiet manner, while the frank look that still 
sought that of his best friend was fraught with 
sadness. 

Islay turned on his heel, feeling as if a bullet had 
blazed through his own brain. He tried to occupy 
himself apparently in giving directions to the gillies 
about the dead roebuck, while the rest of the party 
moved slowly onwards. 

Guelda could with difficulty keep back the tears in 
her eyes. It grieved her to have grieved her sworn 
brother ; she was so sorry — heart sorry — for good 
kind Islay. 

“ You are vexed at that pretty creature being shot 
- — and so near you too ! Ah, ah, tender-hearted and 
nervous as women are, it was disturbing to the 
nerves!” said Sir Julian Inglis, briskly, constituting 
himself her homeward companion. With ready tact 
he came to the front to save her from feeling uncom- 
fortable. “ My old legs are stiff after to-day’s stalking 
— shall we drop a leetle behind ? That’s right — thank 
you!” then, in a lower, comforting tone, “Come, 
come, my dear child, don’t fret about this little 
incident — ‘all’s well that ends well,’ you know; and, 
’pon my word, I believe this will end very well.” 

“ The duke has been such a kind friend to me, and 
I fear he is vexed,” murmured Guelda, looking with 
wet shining orbs in her old friend’s face. 

“ Tut, tut ! Is that all ? You are too sensitive ; a 
lovely woman must make many men unhappy. 
What a snail the duke is, though ; look at him far 
behind us — a snail in more important matters as well, 
I fancy, so no wonder if others get before him. How- 
ever, we need not pity him, for, as Shakspere says, 
‘he carries his house upon his head’ — and a fine 
inheritance too, which ought to console any man for 
other losses.” 

His hearer was very grateful for the old man’s 
well-meant, plausible attempts to dissipate her regrets. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


Ill 


Still Sir Julian only judged Islay by a very ordinary 
standard, and did not do him justice ; neither did 
even perhaps Guelda, for that matter. 

Both looked up at the vast dark pile of the castle 
rising before them, with its flag flying from the top- 
most tower, its gardens and park, woods, river, and 
moor lying widespread around. 

“ It is a noble inheritance,” said Sir Julian, dropping 
his tone of gay chat for one of seriousness. “ Many 
women would give much to share it and the proud 
position and wealth that the Duke of Islay can offer 
to his future wife ; they would throw every other 
consideration to the winds.” 

“ He deserves a better fate ; he is worthy to be 
liked for himself, and so I trust he will be some day,” 
said Guelda, in low firm tones. 

“ Well said ! Ah, Airlie has been telling you of his 
cousin’s good points, I dare say ! ” returned the old 
diplomatist, with a sly smile. “ Ronald is a chief 
favourite of mine. May I congratulate you after that 
speech ? ” 

There was such a twinkle in his eye, his victim 
could not help laughing, while a deeper rose-flush on 
her cheeks betrayed the fact that she pleaded guilty 
to the soft impeachment insinuated. 

They were in a winding path between the garden 
yew-hedges at the time. Sir Julian stopped short, 
and kissed the fair girl’s hand with courtly grace. 

“ My dear, I am surprised, but very glad,” he said. 
“ You might not think such a battered old worldling 
had any romance under his grey hairs still, and yet, 
I assure you, it warms the cockles of my heart to see 
a young couple really in love ; and, like Romeo and 
Juliet, overcoming all the barriers of old family hatred 
and wrongs.” 

“Sir Julian,” uttered Guelda, with parted lips, 
“ you once promised to tell me why my grandfather 
was angry at Sheen. It was at the name of Airlie — 
so I guessed later— tell me the reason now.” 


H2 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“You do not know the story, then? Has not 
Ronald himself ” 

“ No. He put my questions aside ; but I do wish 
to know.” 

“ Well, it is best you did. Briefly, then, you are 
aware, I suppose, that Sheen Abbey and its demesne 
did not belong to the Lyndon family in former gene- 
rations ? The escutcheon over the porch, the coats 
of arms in the stained windows of the chapel, the 
very tombstones that pave the chapel floor would tell 
you that.” 

“ They did not tell me ; and no one ever said a 
word on the subject. Remember how little time I 
have spent there, and all was so new. The coats of 
arms and escutcheons — I do not understand heraldry. 
The tombstones — I knelt on them, but they are 
so worn one can hardly decipher the inscriptions, and 
I supposed they were those of my ancestors. Then 
to whom did Sheen Abbey belong ? ” 

“To a family whose ancestors may become yours,” 
answered Sir Julian, with a subtle smile — “to that of 
Ronald Airlie.” 

Guelda started in surprise. 

“ Then how did they lose it ? Tell me — tell me 
all ! ” 

“It passed, more than a century ago, into the pos- 
session of a younger brother of a Duke of Islay by 
marriage with the heiress of Sheen. He was Ronald 
Airlie’s grandfather, as Lord Lyndon is yours. I re- 
member them both well We were wild young fellows 
in the Regency days, drinking heavily, and as to 
gambling, egad, not only all night, but often all day ! 
So your grandfather and Airlie played once together 
all night long and into the afternoon of next day, with 
the curtains drawn and the candles kept lit. Every 
one of the other players long before had been carried 
out in a helpless condition — manners of the times ! 
Airlie at one period won tremendously, like a tyro’s 
luck, for he seldom tried dice or cards, while Lyndon 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


113 


was a famous gamester. Unhappily, later on, poor 
Airlie not only lost his winnings, but dipped his 
fortune so deeply that in reckless despair he at last 
wagered Sheen Abbey itself.” 

“ And lost ? ” 

“ And lost,” gravely repeated Sir Julian. “ He came 
out of that gambling hell a penniless, homeless man.” 

“ How terrible,” mused the girl slowly, “ to lose the 
old home, fortune, everything on a throw of the dice ! 
But at least it was fair, surely ? Where was the 
wrong ? My grandfather might have lost as much, 
might he not ? ” 

“ Humph ! ” Old Sir Julian tapped his stout stick 
on the ground as they slowly went on, “ It is a 
delicate subject to discuss with a man’s grand- 
daughter, still the fact remains that Lyndon was 
famous for being able to drink all the dandies of his 
day under the table and yet keep his head clear ; 
wonderful nerve and self-possession ; but poor Airlie 
was hot-headed and generous-hearted to excess. No 
doubt he made the wager, yet, when Lyndon showed 
him his signature to a paper the other had written, 
handing over Sheen Abbey, Airlie recollected nothing 
of the matter.” 

Guelda stopped dead ; her eyes blazed, a dark 
colour suffused her face. She said low, in a suffo- 
cated voice : 

“ Then you mean it was a — a shameful deed ? ” 

“ No,' no ; come, not so much as that ! ” interposed 
Sir Julien, airily, waving his stick, yet using con- 
strained tones. “ Only the affair made a sensation 
in society. Lord Lyndon was a man of honour, but 
I think myself he might have foregone taking his 
* pound of flesh ’ in this case. Curious, he has never 
enjoyed Sheen much, has he? Except, indeed, since 
you "came to brighten his latter days.” 

“ But the end of the story — what became of the 
Airlies ? ” asked Guelda, low, with tears in her eyes ; 
she could scarcely speak. 


8 


114 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“ O — ah ! ’’ Sir Julian hemmed reluctantly. “ Well, 
my friend Airlie was too high-spirited to dispute his 
own signature, of course, but — well, it broke his heart. 
He was grieved to death at having destroyed, as he 
thought, his son’s prospects. However, Ronald’s 
father married well, and, though he and his young 
wife died early, Ronald has a fair future, I think, 
before him. Eh, my dear, you will right the wrong?” 

When they reached the castle, Guelda found a 
telegram awaiting her, signed by Hillis, the old 
family butler. 

“ Lord Lyndon is dangerously ill. Please return 
immediately 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


115 


CHAPTER XV. 

Guelda Seaton left Islay Castle in haste an hour 
after receiving the summons to her perhaps dying 
grandfather’s bedside. 

That same evening Ronald Airlie went straight to 
the duke’s private study at an hour when he was 
likely to find him disengaged. Islay rose hastily 
from where he had been sitting, gazing dreamily at 
a writing-table, a pile of untouched letters before 
him, and looked straight at his cousin with a heavy 
countenance. Never handsome at any time, yet his 
face was generally made pleasant by the good- 
humoured expression that gave it light and play. 
Now that radiance was gone ; his eyes were dull and 
fixed, the muscles about the mouth were strained as 
if in pain, and only largely moulded, inert features, 
seemingly dull and stolid, met Ronald’s sympathetic 
gaze. The man’s inner self was hidden. But Ronald 
knew his cousin’s good heart thoroughly. 

“You want to speak to me,” said Islay stiffly, rising. 

“Yes,” returned Airlie, impetuously, with strong 
feeling in his voice, his blue eyes showing an eager 
sympathy and affection that could not be gainsaid. 
“ I have been waiting anxiously for the first moment 
that you were alone, to tell you the whole truth about 
my meeting with Miss Seaton this afternoon.” 

“ Stop a moment ! ” interposed the other, in a harsh 
voice. “ Are you engaged to her ? ” 

“ Islay, you have been better than ten brothers to 
me ! ” returned Ronald, with faltering slowness. 
“ Heaven knows, I tried to keep my word to you in 
this matter, and that I would give anything to spare 
you pain, but we are engaged.” 


8 * 


116 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“ I thought as much. Well, I am glad you are so, 
at all events, and not merely trifling with the girl ; 
you are rather used to affairs of the heart, I believe ; 
I am not,” said Islay with a bitter laugh. 

“You are unjust,” was Airlie’s slow answer, feeling 
deeply hurt, but yet knowing that it behoved him to 
keep his temper under self-control, because he had 
won the prize. “ If I have had experiences of the 
kind you mean, they have not been always of my 
own seeking.” 

After a minute’s pause, Ronald Airlie burst out 
again, speaking with his whole heart. 

“ At all events, this is the only woman in the world 
I ever loved utterly, madly, and that at first sight, 
from the moment we met her in the forest.” 

“ And yet you received my confidences, and even 
wished me good luck ! ” put in Islay, hoarsel . 

“ I did. The moment I found she was Lord 
Lyndon’s grandchild, my pride rose, and I vowed to 
keep out of her path if I could not conquer this 
overwhelming feeling that had taken hold of me. 
Besides, I am a pauper of society, and, as you said 
yourself, the last man living likely to wish to ally 
myself with one of the Seatons. But it was too 
strong for me — the harvest revels were too great a 
temptation.” 

“ What — then it was you ? I might have known 
as much ! ” 

“Yes, I was the Wanderer, and I thought,” went 
on Ronald, hurrying out his self-justification, “ that I 
could venture to trust myself to meet her here. 
Rumour said you were almost engaged to her — that 
would have been a sacred bar — but the first evening 
she came I knew it was not so.” 

“ No ; but it might have been with time,” groaned 
Islay ; then, recollecting himself with a start, “ What 
a fool I am — as if all were not fair in love, and you as 
free as myself to try your chance ! ” 

“Believe me, dear old Islay, for your sake I did 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


117 


not feel free. The whole story is — we saw, we loved, 
and, when at last we met, all was understood.” 

Then Ronald unfolded somewhat more of the 
romance. He told of his own vain struggles to resist 
what seemed a hopeless infatuation that warred with 
his pride, besides a betrayal of his cousin’s trust. 
Before he had ended, Islay interrupted him with the 
old honest look in his eyes — the old honest ring of 
his voice. 

“Say no more — not now, at least. You could not 
help yourself ; and she ” — with a big sigh — “ has 
chosen the better man by far of us two.” He wrung 
Ronald’s hand with a hearty “ God bless you both ! 
But now, do you mind leaving me alone for a 
while ?” 

As Ronald Airlie went away, at peace with himself 
once more, but grieved for his cousin, he thought, 
“ What a gentleman dear old Islay is ! The better 
man of the two — he is that. I could not show 
his patience under such a loss.” 

Lady Grizel’s turn came next. Ronald sought her 
with more alacrity and a light heart. “ She will be 
really glad. What has pleased me has always given 
her ten times as much pleasure, I verily believe,” he 
said to himself, with a man’s happy selfishness. A 
brisk voice desired him to “ Come in ! ” as, after as- 
cending some narrow winding steps, he knocked at 
the door of a tiny turret-chamber that overhung the 
old flower-garden, and that, seen from the outside, 
looked like a swallow’s nest of masonry clinging to 
the old grey walls. 

“ I know what brings you,” cried Grizel, with a 
rather forced gaiety, as Ronald, stooping his tall head 
under the low-arched doorway, lifted the portiere and 
entered. Her gipsy-brown complexion was flushed, 
and, though her eyes were very dull, her manner was 
all the brighter and her voice quick. “ She is gone, 
fond lover, and you are coming to be consoled. Con- 
gratulations first, condolences after — eh ? ” 


118 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

“You know, then? Did she tell you?” asked 
Ronald, joyful to be met so pleasantly half-way. 

“ I told her. I knew it all along — ever since the 
revels. Dyed black hair could not deceive my eyes, 
Ronald.” 

“ So you knew me, then ? No one else did except 
Guelda. You have been always such a true sister to 
me, I am not surprised at your recognising me in any 
disguise ; but was it not wonderful she did too ? ” 
was Airlie’s smiling answer, forgetting his present 
desolation at his love’s absence in the delight of 
retrospection. 

“ What, Guelda knew you, then ? ” muttered Lady 
Grizel slowly in surprise, musing within herself. Then 
suddenly, with a strange outburst of warmth, “ I am 
glad she knew you. It proves ” 

But what it proved she did not say. Ronald, in 
his loverlike eagerness to disburden himself to such a 
sympathetic listener of his own sense of loss at his 
lady-love’s sudden summons, never noticed the break 
in Lady Grizel’s sentence. He was full of new-born 
exaggerated fears lest the journey might try Guelda’s 
health, though only yesterday he had praised the 
open-air forest rearing that enabled her to walk all 
day over the heather with a step still springy and 
firm at nightfall when most other women would have 
been tired out. He grieved with his darling’s grief 
on hearing of Lord Lyndon’s illness, and yet selfish- 
ness whispered this might truly make matters easier. 
Lastly, in his overflowing of heart, Ronald rambled on 
more blithely of his late hopes and fears and joy ; of 
his proud regret that she — his promised wife — was 
cited as an heiress. That had been a bitterness to 
his poor man’s proverbial pride. 

“You two could not get on without it, Ronald. A 
girl brought up in luxury could meet poverty more 
cheerfully, I am certain, than one like Guelda, who 
knows what it means. There — don’t call down a 
thunderbolt on my head ! Can you not see that, 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. H9 

after some twenty years of plenty, the one could 
afford to fast, whilst she who has just tasted good 
things, after being reared in famine, would find it all 
the harder in her heart to resign them ? Though 
that, I believe Guelda would be ready to do for you 
ungrudgingly.” 

“ I don’t want to be a fool about the money,” 
laughed Ronald, uneasily. “ Still, may I not own to 
the wish it were mine to give her ? ” 

“ No ; wishes go to my head like wine — I can’t see 
the sober facts around me if I take to wishing. And 
now, as to wishes, may I beg of you to leave me time 
to dress? Other people must dine, you will own 
dear old Ronald, though you could live on air. 
There ! be thankful you have not to ask Guelda to 
bear poverty’s burden for your sake, though I am 
sure she would do it more bravely than anyone.” • 

Lady Grizel drove him out of her den, as she called 
the turret-room, with playful scolding. On the 
threshold Ronald stopped, however, to deliver himself 
of thanks with effusion of heart for having found such 
a good kind listener. 

“ What a dear sister you are to me, Grizel ! Even 
as a boy I always thought there was no one like you, 
and now I think there is only one in the world before 
you,” he said, affectionately, and stooped to kiss her 
cheek in brotherly fashion, as he had always done 
from earliest school-days, on home-comings and 
leave-takings, or on high days and holidays. And it 
was Grizel who had come flying to throw her arms 
about his neck and kiss him herself when he marched 
home proudly after landing the biggest salmon that 
the oldest keeper could recollect ever being caught in 
the river; and when he had shown her the noble 
antlers of that “ poor dappled fool,’ his first stag ; and 
when, on “first joining” his regiment, the Blues, he 
consented to display the glories of his uniform with 
secret pride, but outward condescension, for Grizel’s 
benefit. But Ronald forgot I 


120 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

After he had kissed her and gone out of the room, 
Lady Grizel stood very still while the firm tread echoed 
down the old stone passage outside. Then she turned, 
and, instead of going to dress as she had said, flung 
herself face downwards on a sofa, writhing her body 
in mute agony, gripping hard at the cushions, rolling 
her head to and fro, as if tortured and vainly seeking 
for rest. 

“ I thought I could bear it — I thought I could 
bear it ; but oh, I cannot ! ” she moaned, under her 
breath. 

Yet, like many another woman, she had to bear 
this terrible anguish, and in secret. Tears would have 
relieved her throbbing brain, but her eye-balls were 
dry and burning. Then the warning of a gong, 
stealing like a humming sound into her ears after 
traversing the many and distant passages of the great 
castle, roused the prone figure, and she rose slowly, 
passing her hands over her forehead and giving some 
little moans in self-pity. She must dress and go down 
stairs and pretend to dine ; then meet with a smiling 
calm the malicious or sympathetic inquiries from her 
guests upon Guelda Seaton’s sudden departure ; hear 
it hinted laughingly that Ronald Airlie seemed out of 
spirits ; sympathise with her cousin, and receive his 
lover’s confidences. 

“ Islay and I will be closely watched to-night. We 
must not flinch ; my secret might be guessed — who 
knows ? — as well as his,” she thought to herself. 

After hardening her heart, Lady Grizel Airlie went 
to face her little world with more even than usual of 
her brusque bonhomie , that was yet of itself the sign 
of her high breeding, being too proud to show pride ; 
the darkly warm carnation that never left her brunette 
complexion was deeper than usual, her brisk voice 
and cheery laugh rang more loudly and frequently. 
She bravely demeaned herself as a worthy daughter 
of her house. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


121 


CHAPTER XVI. 

On the afternoon of the next day, after travelling 
all night, Guelda reached Sheen Abbey. She was 
fatigued rather from agitation of mind than from the 
exertion of the journey, and had felt her anxiety the 
more that there was no one with whom she could 
share it. Her own French maid, Julie, had com- 
plained of feeling so unwell before the visit to 
Scotland that in compassion Guelda had left her 
behind at Sheen, contenting herself with the help of 
Lady Grizel’s second Abigail. She regretted Julie 
on the journey home, who had now been with her a 
year, and was one of the most “ perfect treasures ” of 
a waiting-maid. 

No carriage from Sheen met Miss Seaton at the 
station. No doubt, she thought, she had come too 
quickly ; yet she had telegraphed on the way. As 
her hired fly drove up at last to the Abbey entrance, 
she sprang out eagerly, and met the old butler, who 
opened the door for her at the same instant. 

“ How is Lord Lyndon, Hillis ?” asked the girl, in 
a voice of hasty anxiety. 

“ His lordship is better, Miss Seaton ; he is past all 
present danger, they say. You must not be alarmed ; 
though it was a stroke. He is going on well now. 

But ” replied the old man, with a curious look of 

pity that belied the reassuring words, as his gaze 
rested on his young mistress’s eager features. 

The latter interrupted him with a rapid flow of 
questions upon the symptoms ; the doctor’s verdict ; 
whether Master Bertrand was well ? Still Hillis 
reassured her on all these points. Guelda was about 


122 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


to pass hurriedly on through the great hall, when the 
family major-domo respectfully stopped her. 

“But, Miss Seaton — but,” he stammered, “if you 
will excuse my asking a favour, please do not mention 
to anyone that I telegraphed for you. It was a liberty. 
No, my lord is too ill to know, and if he had his 
senses you would be the first one he would ask for — 
that we all think. But another person arrived here 
unexpectedly — only two days ago — and as he is 
acting as master now ” 

“ He ! Whom do you mean ? ” 

Old Hillis coughed in a very awkward manner; 
then, ordering the tall, beplushed and powdered foot- 
men to remove the luggage, as soon as they were out 
of hearing he moved mysteriously close to Guelda, 
saying, in earnest and feeling accents : 

“ My dear young lady, it may be a blow to you ; 
but we trust that somehow these things will turn out 
for the best, though we cannot see how. No ; that’s 
what dashes me ! For, when he stayed away so long, 
he might just have stayed for ever,” maundered the 
old servant. “ Goodness knows — excuse my freedom, 
Miss Seaton — with you as our young mistress, and 
Master Bertrand, the heir, we were all as happy as 
heart could wish.” 

“ But who is he — who has come ? Do speak ! ” 
cried Guelda, on thorns. 

“ The person — I beg pardon, gentleman,” said Hillis, 
with an unwilling slowness that was exasperating, 
“ that has come, is a very near relation of yours ; he 
is, in fact, your uncle, Mr. Robert Seaton, who was 
supposed to have died in Australia.” 

“ Mr. Robert Seaton — my grandfather’s eldest son ! 

Then he is alive — he is ” At that moment the 

door at the upper end of the hall opened, and a man 
descended the slippery wide steps leading from the 
morning-rooms with an air of haste. 

“Welcome to Sheen Abbey, my dear niece — my 
dearest girl ! So you are my poor brother Bertrand’s 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 123 

daughter ? ” he exclaimed as he appeared, holding out 
both hands. 

Then he bent forward and kissed Guelda on the 
cheek. The girl shrank under the touch with a sudden 
instinctive dislike. But she recollected in the next 
flash of thought that this uncle was of her own flesh 
and blood, and that though she might think his voice 
disagreeable, even in those few first accents too in- 
gratiating to please her fine ear, still a man returned as 
it were from the grave surely deserved a kind reception. 
Yet nothing came from her bewildered lips except 
the words : 

“ We all believed you were dead.” 

“ And the report was accepted, as you see, without 
foundation. Here I am alive in this old hall where I 
played as a boy,” answered Robert Seaton, looking 
round with a rather melancholy smile that showed two 
rows of good teeth, under a peculiar short but pointed 
moustache, slightly drooping. 

Guelda, looking full at him, now saw a likeness still 
so strong to a crayon-drawing of Robert Seaton at 
twenty-one, which hung in Lord Lyndon’s study, that 
she might have been tempted to recognise him as her 
uncle anywhere, allowing for the difference of some 
five-and-twenty years. It was a cold face, though the 
well-cut features were not unpleasing, pale, almost 
parchment-like in complexion, with black hair thin- 
ning back from the temples. Lord Lyndon was bald 
at the same spot, and his face had always been 
singularly pallid. 

In other respects the son did not much resemble 
his father, for he had a more clumsy figure, Lord 
Lyndon being exceedingly spare and upright. Robert 
Seaton’s shoulders were slightly rounded, his step 
cautious, and his bearing watchful rather than haughty, 
as was that of the old man. But in face, though that 
of the new-comer was a trifle broader and heavier 
about the jaws and lower in the forehead, still there 
was certainly a species of likeness to his father. 


124 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


Guelda noticed this most in the disagreeable cha- 
racteristics of her grandfather’s countenance — the 
firm closed mouth, the arrogant searching expression 
of those bent brows. They seemed ever on guard 
against attack, these same “ moveable types,” as they 
have been called, of the thoughts lying close hidden 
under the bland forehead. 

Robert Seaton had both these traits of his ancestors 
and also a noticeable* attitude in the old lord of 
standing with one hand placed inside the breast of 
his coat, giving him a Napoleonic air. Guelda re- 
membered at once having heard such little habits 
were often hereditary. Her poor old grandfather ! 
If only for his sake, she ought to like this man, his 
once favourite son, who had been as one dead. And 
yet 

“ I am afraid you are not as glad to see me, my 
child, as I am to see my poor brother’s orphan,” said 
Robert Seaton softly, at that moment, as if divining 
her thoughts. “ Still, I trust my pretty niece will, 
before long, come to look upon me as a father. You 
have been mistress here, I know. Well, there ought 
to be one, as well as a master, in every house. You 
are your grandfather’s pet. Don’t think your old 
uncle has come to turn you out ; we shall all be a 
happy family.” 

He spread out a rather ostentatious palm protect- 
ingly as he spoke, and, taking Guelda’s small hand 
prisoner, gave it a would-be affectionate squeeze that 
forced her rings into her fingers. 

With smarting hand Guelda recovered her liberty, 
and instantly felt convinced that her relation’s mind 
and manners must have deteriorated and coarsened 
with the texture of his hands during the years of his 
“ feeding the swine.” What a hard, ungenial grip his 
was ! 

And then to remind her with his first breath that 
he was her elder, an uncle, and could dispossess her, 
if' he pleased, from her post at her grandfather’s right 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


125 


hand ! He might have credited her with sufficient 
generosity to overlook the fact of being ousted in the 
human feeling of gladness on finding the supposed 
dead living. 

Guelda deceived herself ; she was not really 
generous, but full of prejudice and resolved to 
dislike her uncle from the first. His words, were too 
cajoling to be true, she decided ; the eyes which were 
fixed on her face with a honeyed admiration repelled 
her own ; his manner was almost fawning in its 
blandishment. 

“ He is not a gentleman ! ” was her hot, quick 
thought, with rising anger at Seaton’s words and air. 
“ Look upon him as a father, indeed ! ” Had she not 
heard tales from old Hillis of how in youth this 
Robert — his father’s favourite — had been disliked and 
dreaded by the servants ; of his overbearing ways 
towards good-natured Bertrand, whose memory was 
still adored around Sheen Abbey. And who knew 
what he had been doing in the last silent years 
following his downward career ? “ He may have 

been a convict,” thought the niece, in unjust bitter- 
ness. 

“You look as though you were remembering all 
the bad you must have heard of me,” this strange 
uncle broke in, watching her face. “ Come, I have 
been a prodigal son ; but my dear old father blessed 
and forgave me when he saw my face again. I found 
him, alas ! in very feeble health, and the shock of his 
great joy has been too much for him. But I thought 
that women were like angels, and rejoiced over 
repentant sinners.” 

“ Indeed, Uncle Robert,” stammered Guelda, “ I 
knew next to nothing of your history. It was so 
long ago — at least, I mean, I was not born when you 
went away.” 

“ No ; and your father and I were both turned out 
of doors by the old man,” said her uncle, with a 
curious significative movement of the head towards 


126 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


the study. “You and the little chap only turned up 
last year — eh ? And here I am.” 

“ Please — please, tell me how my grandfather is ! ” 

“ O, yes, of course ; you do not care to listen to 
the romance of my history till another time,” inter- 
posed Seaton, eagerly, still holding his niece with his 
eyes, and moving slightly in her direct passage. “ A 
feeling heart like yours is of course grieving with our 
dear sufferer ; I must not call upon your pity for 
myself till you have leisure. His lordship is better ; 
much better ; you need not be anxious at present.” 

“ I am anxious to see him.” 

“ Presently ; presently ; he is sleeping, my dear,” 
said her uncle, raising his hand gently, but with an 
air of command. “You must leave him to my care 
now, you know. The grief of finding the poor old 
man so weak that he could only recognise me, and 
then give way, has been a great shock to myself. I 
dare not risk his being more upset.” 

“ But, still ” — Guelda’s lips trembled, her beautiful 
brown eyes filled with tears, and she unconsciously 
extended her hands in a supplicating attitude — 
“ surely you would not keep me from him ! He may 
be dying, Uncle Robert. He is so fond of me; he 
will know me.” 

“ Of course he is fond of you. Who would not be 
fond of such a pretty girl ? ” replied her uncle, with a 
mollified aspect. “ Don’t fret, my dear niece — he is 
better. Indeed, he is going on so well that I trust 
you did not shorten your visit to Scotland on account 
of this.” 

Guelda caught sight of a somewhat appealing look 
on old Hillis’s face, who still stood in the back- 
ground. 

“ Thanks, my visit had come to an end in any 
case,” she answered, coldly. “ But you do not under- 
stand a woman’s province of sick-nursing. I promise 
not to disturb my grandfather, but my place is at his 
bedside.” 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


127 


This was said in a firm tone, though with a pleasing 
reasonableness of manner. Something warned her 
not to try opposition yet openly. 

“ Of course ; but you must first take some rest 
yourself ; we must think of preserving the precious 
health of so bright a visitor, you know.” 

“ I could not possibly rest till I have seen him.” 

The late young mistress of Sheen was half 
ashamed of herself for speaking in a pleading sweet 
voice, and of knowing her eyes were turned with an 
imploring expression on this intruder, who at once 
arrogated the right, as it seemed, of parting her from 
the old grandfather who loved her. A dull fear 
whispered in her heart, “ Perhaps he is very ill, and 
this man is hiding it.” Anyhow, Seaton was evidently 
touched by the pathetically beautiful gaze that 
appealed to him. 

“ I cannot refuse you anything, I see,” he said, 
with a triumphant smile ; for had he not made this 
spoilt young* beauty bow to his authority? ‘‘Come 
with me.” 

When the grand-daughter entered Lord Lyndon’s 
room, her mind flew back at once to that first time 
when she and little Bino had tremblingly passed its 
threshold only a year and a half ago. 

But now the scene was changed. Her grandfather 
was lying helpless in his bed, but not sleeping, as 
Seaton had said, though in a sort of doze or stupor. 
He opened his eyes presently, asGuelda hung silently 
over him, and smiled painfully at her, one side of his 
face being numbed, but he showed no surprise ; then 
he tried to speak. Bending down her head, she 
caught with difficulty the words : 

“Glad . . . very glad . . . my dear child, to see 
you ! ” 

“What does he say?” asked her Uncle Robert’s 
voice close in her ear. 

With a disagreeable sensation, his niece repeated 
the words. Then, as she caressed the old man’s hand 


128. TIIE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

softly, Lord Lyndon closed his eyes with a hapoier 
expression, and seemed to slumber. Guelda gazed 
at him, feeling her heart wrung. He had at least 
been very gentle to her for a year, very loving, this 
proud, irascible, old man. Now he lay stricken down 
helpless, almost speechless. In spite of what the 
doctors might say, the fear came into his grandchild’s 
mind, repulse it though she tried, that he would 
never rise again. Heavy in heart, the girl crept 
away, leaving the sick-room in possession of her 
uncle. Then her footsteps hastened ; she flew to 
find Bino ; he was only second in her thoughts be- 
cause her grandfather needed her first. 

Guelda found the little fellow huddled up discon- 
solately in a window-seat in his own room, staring 
out on the park. He did not stir as his sister hurried 
forward, but pushed her off pettishly, even while she 
caught him in her arms with loving kisses and 
caresses. 

“You have been away so long, I thought you 
were never coming back any more ! You don’t care 
for me Guejda, or you would not have left me all 
alone,” he whimpered. 

Guelda drew back to look at him, and then she 
saw that the child’s face was white and stained with 
tears. 

“ Bino, my little Bino, don’t say that ! I must 
leave you sometimes when now you are growing big, 
you know ; but then you have your pony, dear, and 
there are the rabbits and guinea-pigs, and your own 
puppy. Besides, you were to go out ferreting and 
fishing, I thought.” 

“ What is the good of my pony and the rabbits ? ” 
broke out the boy angrily, half crying. “ They are 
not mine now, are they — nor the dogs, nor anything ? 
Girls are such muffs not to understand ! This place 
isn’t mine now — I mean it won’t be ; and none of the 
labourers call me the lit — the little lord any more ! ” 
He burst at the last words into unrestrained sobbing, 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 129 

and buried his face on his sister’s shoulder. “ It’s all 
that man’s doing, and I hate him, I do ! ” 

“ What do you mean, dear ? ” asked Guelda, 
shocked at the thought that had not yet had time 
to take shape in her mind, in all the turmoil of 
anxiety and haste that had bewildered her since 
entering the house, but now started up, confronting 
her full grown, and very real. 

“ Why, that he says, and so does everybody, that 
he is the heir of Sheen Abbey,” retorted Bertrand, 
in angry impatience at her dulness of compre- 
hension. “ And what are we, I want to know ? ” 
What, indeed ? It flashed upon the girl that of 
course their Uncle Robert was Lord Lyndon’s eldest 
son. 

It was ill news indeed that old Hillis had given 
her so reluctantly, very different from the good 
things of which he had before been the bearer when 
he came to her cottage that May night a year and a 
half ago. In a strange vague way it seemed as if 
the girl had known from the first moment that 
Robert Seaton was the heir ; yet, in truth, her mind 
was so overfilled with immediate fears for her grand- 
father, and anxiety to see her loved little brother, 
that she had not thought of it. 

Evidently, her hopes had not been set on little 
Bertrand’s inheritance as were his own. “ Oh, dead 
men’s shoes ! ” she thought bitterly to herself. Had 
the little fellow so early been trying how his feet fitted 
in them ? For Lord Lyndon was still so hale, of 
such a commanding individuality, with apparently 
many years yet before him to enjoy — while Bino was 
such a child, cowed and shrinking in the background 
out of his dreaded grandfather’s sight — that Guelda 
had only thought of his succession as a dim far-away 
event in the time to come. And now he seemed 
broken-hearted, her poor little man ! 

That night, in fitful waking moments between dis- 
turbed dreams of Islay and Ronald and her new 

9 


130 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


uncle, the “ welcome back ” of the latter and his 
words, “ so bright a guest,” recurred with unpleasing 
distinctness to Guelda’s mind. Would she indeed be 
only a guest here, henceforth ? But, surely, surely, 
it was too soon to think of that ! Her uncle assumed 
too much whilst the present master of Sheen still 
lay below stairs living. 

And then she thought how, if all had their rights 
another ought to be the master here — her own love 
Ronald. Was it shame that Guelda smiled, consoled 
for all her other distresses because he loved her ? 

What a kind, good, eider brother she would give 
Bertrand to make up for his lost inheritance ! 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


131 


* CHAPTER XVII. 

“ My grandfather was ill before I ever left for 
Scotland, you say. Oh, Hillis, how could you con- 
ceal it from me ? ” said Guelda, in low accents of 
keen reproach to the old family retainer who stood 
before her. 

They were holding a secret conference in her own 
sitting-room, the blue tapestry chamber ; and both 
were speaking with hushed voices. Yet the sick-room 
was far away — why were they afraid of being over- 
heard ? Perhaps neither would have liked to give a 
reason ; still, by mutual unspoken understanding, 
they had both fallen into a secret confidential manner 
from the moment of Guelda’s return. 

“ Don’t blame me, Miss Seaton ; it was by his 
lordship’s own orders. He said to me himself, 
‘ Hillis,’ said he, ‘ not a word to Miss Guelda ; she 
might shorten her visit to Islay Castle.’ He thought, 

you see ” Hillis ceased in confusion, and coughed 

behind his hand, resuming, “ My dear young lady, he 
always would be obeyed. You, nor I, no — no one 
could have gainsaid him. All the time he was in 
town he was failing. I knew it, but he would have 
his last season. Then the house-party here was too 
much for him ; but it was his own doing. He always 
said to me, when I ventured any remonstrance, that 
he would rest afterwards, and now ” 

Guelda broke down, quietly crying. Yes, and now, 
she thought, it would be a long rest indeed. 

“ Don’t grieve so ; don’t fret as if you could help 
it, miss ! ” urged the old man, much distressed. 
“ You brightened up his latter days riaofe than ^ any- 

P 


132 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


one would have believed. He said to me, * It was 
like a new springtime of life ! ’ But it could not last; 
it was not to be expected at his years.” 

“ And he began to fail, you say, while I was 
away ? ” asked his listener, asking for the fifth time 
to hear the sad tale, perchance to gam some fresh 
information. 

“ Yes ; he grew weak and fretful, and was always 
about and restless— though easily tired— and talked 
of old days like yesterday. His mind seemed failing 
a bit, and I did ask Julie to write you a hint of it.” . 

“ She never did — never ! ” said Guelda, thinking 
how Lord Lyndon himself, Hillis, and the maids, 
all had unwittingly conspired to keep his grandchild 
in ignorance. 

“And my unc — Mr. Seaton — tell me about his 
appearance.” 

“ He came two days ago, walking up the drive as if 
he had only been away for a stroll. He went straight 
to the mulberry-tree where Lady Lyndon used to sit, 
and where her Italian greyhound is buried, and there 
his lordship found him crying.” 

“ Crying ? But his mother died when he was a 
child ! ” 

“ That is so ; but any way he was overcome, and 
one of the gardeners saw him wiping of his eyes, and 
thought it queer in a stranger. Then his lordship, 
who was walking slowly in the grounds, saw him and 
went up. They spoke a word or two, and Hume, 
the new under-gardener, saw my lord stagger to the 
seat as if taken ill. Hume ran up, but Lord Lyndon 
waved him away, though seeming very faint. Then 
he turned to Mr. Seaton, and Hume heard him say, 
‘ Is this really you, Robert — can I believe my senses ? ’ 
Mr. Seaton supported him up to the door ; but when 
I came he could scarcely speak ; only said thickly to 
me like, ‘ Hillis, Mr. Robert has come back. We had 
no right to assume with such certainty that he was 
dead. Dear me, if Mr. Bertrand could only come 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


133 


home next, and her ladyship, too! She has been 
longest gone.’ ” 

Guelda’s tears fell large, one by one ; it seemed 
very pitiful, this old man, who had so long been 
lonely, thus welcoming home the son wno had most 
deeply vexed his soul years before, and then breaking 
down. 

“ Mr. Robert kept explaining to him how he 
allowed himself to be supposed dead. I did not 
rightly hear it, for I went to get brandy; but his 
lordship only answered, ‘ I am quite satisfied — you 
are come home. No matter about the past.’ Myself, 
I could hardly believe he was Mr. Robert, he was so 
altered.” 

“ How — in what way ? ” The impulsive girl 
leaned forward, a wild thought shooting across the 
darkness of her mind, rocket-like. What if this man, 
after all, was not Robert Seaton — proved an im- 

pos She heard old Hillis answer, in a slow, 

steady voice : 

“He is changed for the worse — that’s all ! You 
will excuse my freedom, miss. I was only a lad in 
the stables when he went away, and afterwards I got 
to be groom, and then his lordship liked me and took 
me travelling as valet. Mr. Robert seldom troubled 
himself about the horses ; he was all for cards and 
wine and life in London. But your father, Mr. 
Bertrand, was always coming out to the stables with 
a cheery word for everyone, so I knew him best. 
But still, though in those days Mr. Robert was proud 
and cold, he was a perfect gentleman.” 

“ And you think he is greatly altered now, Hillis ? ” 
asked Guelda, with a curious smile. 

The old butler looked rather shocked at his own 
freedom, and hastened to excuse himself. 

“ I spoke too freely, Miss Seaton ; but you have 
been my young mistress, and he is like a stranger. 
It’s not a change you could put a name to ; but still, 
you see, no doubt he has been in strange company 


134 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


all these years, and that tells — O, yes, that does ! It’s 
not his fault either, considering he was banished by 
his lordship, and never had a penny from him ever 
since the poor young man was one-and-twenty — the 
wonder is he did not drink himself into his grave. 
No, no, it’s not right to judge him harshly, after all he 
must have gone through. It’s so long ago I had 
clean forgotten him, till the likeness to his picture 
came back upon me : but he knew me in a minute. 
‘What, Hillis,” says he, ‘it’s many a day since you 
used to go out riding with me and Mr. Bertrand ! 
And do you remember the wicked bay filly that was 
bred here, and you broke her in, and how my brother 
would ride her over the big fence in the low meadow ? ’ 
he says. ‘ She was staked, wasn’t she ? And we 
boys caught it hot from his lordship ! Dear me, I 
remember it all like yesterday — many a time I’ve 
thought of it ! ’ But he was wrong in saying he was 
scolded. Mr. Bertrand it was that always got into 
trouble, Mr. Robert used somehow to shift the blame 
from his own shoulders. But, still, I never should 
have expected Mr. Robert to be so glad to see me ; 
he nearly shook my hand off, and he seems as pleased 
with you and Master Bertrand as if you were his 
own children. Don’t be unjust to him, my dear young 
lady — don’t let us be that ! ” 

Hillis somehow coupled his own feelings with those of 
his young mistress as if their interests must be identical. 

If that wild suspicion of Guelda’s mind had gone 
up like a thought-rocket, it now came down like its 
stick. Unjust — yes, she had been that to her uncle, 
indeed. Old Hillis was teaching her a plain duty, 
and the girl felt ashamed of herself. She might 
never like her Uncle Robert ; but however disagree- 
able his soft step and creeping manner, and the 
subtle sidelong look in his eyes, he was Lord Lyndon’s 
eldest son, and his old father had welcomed him. 
He was kind to herself and Bino ; he spoke sorrow- 
fully and affectionately of her dead father. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


135 


“ I never knew before I could be so covetous, 
jealous, so evil-thinking,” was her regretful reflection. 
“ Money seems to bring out all the bad in one’s 
nature ; but I wished him away for Bino’s sake, not 
my own.” 

Lord Lyndon was still ill that night. His young 
grand-daughter, who sat up all through the cold small 
hours beside him (Robert Seaton watching also in a 
remote corner, buried in a deep chair), humbled herself 
and repented of her sins of thought. But she would 
not like her uncle any the better, although she strove 
to be just. 

To go back a little to Lord Lyndon’s stroke, after 
the shock of seeing his long-lost son. Ill and weak 
as he had been, the old man, after his paralytic 
seizure, fell into a lethargy that alarmed Hillis, yet 
rousing himself at moments, his mind seemingly 
much perturbed, he gave orders to send for the family 
lawyer immediately. “ Poor little Bertrand — poor 
little lad ! She would be vexed if he had nothing — 
my Guelda ! ” he muttered ; and then, turning to old 
Hillis* said, confidentially, “ Her ladyship would like 
me to change my will.” 

Evidently his tottering reason confused the bright, 
young grand-daughter with the long-dead fair wife of 
his few happier years. But, when the man of business 
arrived, another unsummoned visitor had been before 
him, and Lord Lyndon lay speechless and palsied, 
sunk in his great chair in the red-hung study. 

Robert Seaton, instead, received the lawyer, and 
seemed so overwhelmed at having brought this afflic- 
tion upon his father by his sudden reappearance that 
the latter was genuinely sorry for him. 

“ And he wished to alter his will, no doubt. My 
return will make a sad difference, I fear, to these 
poor young things, Bertrand’s children,” said the 
disconsolate uncle. 

“To the boy, no doubt. Miss Seaton is well 
provided for already,” replied incautiously the lawyer 


136 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

a youngish man who had succeeded his dead father 
as agent for the Lyndon estates. 

There was a little glitter in the corner of Seaton’s 
eye. 

“ Ah, yes ; the old man — my father — thought of 
making Guelda an heiress, I believe. I trust he has 
done so ; for who knows when he may put pen to 
paper again ? Not but what he could trust me to 
take good care of their interests.” 

“ It will be all right, I should think, sir,” answered 
the other, vaguely remembering he had heard no 
flattering tales of this same ne’er-do-well. 

That same midnight, when all slept in Sheen 
Abbey save himself and the nurse in the sick-room, 
Robert Seaton stood alone in his father’s study, 
before an open bureau. He had unlocked it by 
means of a skeleton key, and now, while listening 
intently for any sound, his eyes and hands were 
busily searching among the neatly-docketed papers. 

“Last will, dated a year ago — I’ve got it!” he 
suddenly exclaimed to himself. “ What ! Sixty 
thousand to his dearly-beloved granddaughter, Guelda 
Seaton ! Flat robbery of his rightful heir ! No, no, 
my respected parent — this won’t do ! ” 

The man knitted his eyebrows in darkly-anxious 
thought. A sound close by startled him. His eye- 
brows rose, his eyes stared as if already seeing some 
object from which he shrank, while his pale cheeks 
fell in hollows, and his lips slightly trembled. 
Whir-r-r ! A “ grandfather’s clock ” began striking ; 
he had heard its premonitory noise. Seaton recovered 
himself with a smile, locked the bureau, and crept 
stealthily away. 

A few days more and Guelda and Bino knelt — the 
former too awestruck for tears, the boy sobbing — by 
their dying grandfather’s bedside. Lord Lyndon had 
partially recovered the use of his speech. Trying to 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


137 


touch his grand-daughter’s bright hair with his best 
but almost powerless hand, the old man whispered 
slowly, looking at his eldest son : 

“ Robert, you will be a guardian to these children. 
I charge you to — take care of them — as — you will 
answer for it — one day ” 

His voice died away in a soundless murmur. 

“ I will take the • best care of them, you may trust 
me,” replied Robert Seaton, with a ready assurance. 

To Guelda, even at that dread moment, his 
speech seemed a glib and hollow mockery. 

A week later, after the funeral, the county was 
stirred by the sensational news that no' will of the 
deceased Lord Lyndon had been found ; therefore his 
newly-returned heir inherited everything. Guelda 
Seaton and her little brother were penniless orphans 
once more. 


138 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

“ Penniless ! ” After having known the sharp 
cravings of want, to be filled with good things, to 
become an heiress, a beauty, a spoilt child of society 
for one brief season, and then to be suddenly cast 
down again from one’s height of bliss ! — a girl left 
without a farthing and with a little brother dependent 
on his mother-sister, their best protector just laid in 
the cold grave — “It is bitter — it is very bitter!” 
sighed Guelda to herself. 

For two or three days after her grandfather’s 
funeral she was very ill. The strain of night-nursing 
after her long journey from Scotland, and her 
anxieties of mind,, had been too much even for her 
young strength. But on the third morning she arose, 
though rather late, and with her sweet face pale and 
fair as an ivory carving, set off by her heavy, crape- 
trimmed mourning, went down the long corridors of 
Sheen. The old servants who met her gave her 
pitying glances — she had been a pleasant young 
mistress to them ; but now her reign was over. 

Guelda looked two or three years older this 
morning, because of a new gravity on her brow. Her 
eyes were as clearly brown as ever, but a certain 
sparkle of hope was quenched in them. Her whole 
counteaance expressed a hard-won resignation and 
gentle patience ill-suited to her years. Her step had 
lost its elasticity, and her heart was more heavy by 
far than her tread. And all this was because of a 
certain resolve to which the young girl had come 
in the last three days, after a long and sore inward 
struggle. Her heart seemed dead ; her life in future 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


139 


would be a joyless protraction of days, months, 

years . Suddenly a childish laugh rang loudly 

from the terrace outside, that made her start as she 
went down a long stone passage. 

“ Whom can Bino be playing with ? No doubt 
some garden-boy, or groom — and he may be angry at 
the noise outside the study,” she thought, recognising 
Bertrand’s childish treble. 

Gently unlatching one of the old-fashioned windows, 
Guelda looked out. To her great surprise, Bino and 
the new master of Sheen were together on the terrace 
below her ; and the stranger uncle, from whom she 
instinctively shrank, whom the little lad had so 
stoutly declared “he hated,” was walking with his 
arm round his nephew’s neck. Both were laughing 
heartily, apparently on the best of terms, and the boy, 
aping a manly strut and puffing out his cheeks, was blow- 
ing small clouds of smoke from a cigarette with an air 
that caused the elder man to shake his sides with mirth. 

“ May I speak with you on some business when 
you can spare time, Uncle Robert?” asked Guelda 
presently, standing sad and unconsciously severe, her 
pale face and graceful dark figure framed in the door- 
way like a living embodiment of that mourning for 
the dead they two had so lightly forgotten. 

“ My time is always at your disposal, my pretty 
niece,” replied the new Lord Lyndon, with his in- 
sinuating smile, but with the watchful look out of the 
corner of his eyes which the girl already hated. 
“ Shall we come to the blue-room ; it is my favourite. 
You don’t mind my smoking?” and he led the way 
into what had been his niece’s own sanctum, the 
tapestry-chamber. 

“ I only object to Bertrand smoking. He is too 
young, and has not been at all strong lately,” an- 
swered Guelda, with a grave sweetness, looking at 
her little brother. 

Bino’s pretty face flushed ; he hung his head, but 
hid his cigarette behind him. 


140 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“ Don’t be angry with him — it’s all my fault ? ” put 
in Uncle Robert, with apologetic good-humour. 
“ Boys will be boys, you know ; and, upon my life, 
he’s such good company, he makes me nearly die of 
laughing ! How are you now ? I was really quite 
distressed to think you were ill — I was, I assure you ! 
I hope those fools of old servants looked after you ? ” 

“ I am quite well again, thank you, and that is what 
I wish to speak to you about. It will be better for 
my brother and me to leave Sheen ” — it seemed too 
hard to say “ your house ” — “ for us to leave Sheen as 
soon as possible.” 

“You don’t say sol And pray may I ask where 
you are going to ? ” exclaimed their newly-found 
uncle, in a broad tone of apparently good-humoured 
jeering surprise. 

Yet Guelda asked herself afterwards with a puzzled 
doubt, was he really surprised ? Her sensitive ear, 
quick to criticise the words of the very few indivi- 
duals whom she disliked, seemed to detect a false note 
in his voice ; the mockery alone was quite natural in 
its ring, and surely there was a slightly malicious 
triumph in the smile lurking in the corners of his 
mouth. Perhaps her uncle guessed her doubt by her 
expression, Guelda’s thoughts being as clear to be 
seen in her face as pebbles in a mountain-brook. 
Changing his own look to instant gravity, and as- 
suming a tone of coarsely-pitying concern, he added, 
leaning his elbow on his knee and resting his head on 
his hand, while his eyes fixed themselves on the 
beautiful young girl opposite him with a glance that 
was intently keen, though carefully veiled : 

“You know, you and he” jerking his thumb 
towards Bertrand — “ have not got a farthing to bless 
yourselves with, and I am sorry, very sorry to say it ! ” 

“That is all the more reason, then, Uncle Robert, 
that we should not be any longer dependent on your 
bounty,” replied Guelda, with spirit, her colour rising 
and her eyes brightening. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


1U 


“ And what would you do ? ” asked her uncle, with 
disagreeable slowness. 

“ 1 mean to work for us both, and support my 
brother as I used to do, until he is old enough to 
work for himself.” 

“ Oh, Guelda, are we going back to that nasty old 
pig-sty of a cottage ? ” cried Bino, with a cry of 
dismay, and regardless of his sister’s whispered en- 
treaties in his ear to have more pride and manliness 
— that all would be right — the little lad buried his 
hands in his curly hair and sobbed. 

“ I’m blest if I’ll allow anything of the kind ! You 
two ain’t going to leave my house without my leave,” 
exclaimed the new Lord Lyndon, throwing off the 
polite manner of speech which always seemed an 
effort to him, and bringing down his hand flat upon 
the table with a force that made little Bertrand jump 
in his shoes. “ What ! to have it said my dear 
brother’s two children were turned out of Sheen 
Abbey by me — never ! Come, now, what more do 
you want? You are both of you beggars ; but I am 
your uncle, and a kind enough one too, as you’ll 
both find out, and I’ll give you your home, board, 
lodging, and clothes, and if you choose to go away it 
will be your own fault — there ! ” 

“Thank you, Uncle Robert,” said Guelda, irre- 
solutely, as Bino’s big sobs kept bursting out still 
with obstinately noisy grief, making her heart ache. 
“ I do acknowledge your kindness, indeed ; yet, since 
we are beggars, as you say, surely it is natural to 
wish to support oneself instead of being dependent 
on your bounty.” 

“ You could take your grub and finery quick 
enough from the old man without such almighty 
pride,” came back with a coarse laugh, that was, how- 
ever, obviously meant to be conciliating. 

The tears sprang to Guelda’s eyes, as she mur- 
mured : 

“ That was different.” 


142 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


But neither of her hearers heeded her ; for Uncle 
Robert had turned to little Bertrand, who was still 
wiping his eyes, and said, giving him a noisy clap on 
the shoulder : 

“Cheer up, my son ! You and I don’t part com- 
pany yet. Why, you’re my heir, you know, and we 
must make a man of you, and, by Jove, so we will ! 
Come, don’t mind your sister ! Not that I want to 
put the boy against you, my dear ” — this soothingly 
— “but you see girls never understand how a boy 
should be brought up ; they want to make molly- 
coddles of them always. You heard your grandfather 
telling me to be guardian to you both ; so you’d best 
trust to me. Bertrand here shall have his pony and 
his servants, and live like a gentleman ; eh, my little 
gamecock, see if you don’t ! ” 

“You will see to his education, of course, Uncle 
Robert,” pleaded the sister, with anxiety, while Bino 
dried his tears and looked up with a brightening face. 
“ My grandfather wished him so much to read with 
the curate here, until he was strong enough to go 
back to school.” 

“ The curate — that Parson Slowtoes as I call him 
— whom I saw at the funeral? Well, I should think 
Bertrand could teach him a thing or two already — eh, 
old chap?” with a wink at the little nephew, who 
naturally grinned, as in duty bound, though his large 
black eyes sought his sister’s face shyly a few 
minutes later with a half-defiant, half-apologetic 
affection. “ All right,” went on their guardian, pre- 
paring to leave the room, and laying a hand on Bino’s 
shoulder by way of intimation that the latter had 
become his plaything, and was not to be parted from 
him, “ he must go back to his lessons presently, and 
we won’t laugh at old ‘ Slowtoes,’ or sister will scold 
us. Come along, my boy ! No, no, my dear girl — 
not another word on this subject ! ” 

Guelda was beaten. The girl looked after her 
uncle and her little brother with a line of trouble 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 143 

puckering her fair young brow, and clasped and un- 
clasped her hands as conflicting resolves crossed her 
mind. 

“ I must wait,” she murmured at last, wisely to 
herself, “ wait and see. Bino is delicate, and, though 
I hate the feeling that we are eating this man’s bread 
henceforth, that is no reason for risking my poor 
little brother’s health, and certainly cutting short his 
childish pleasures and perhaps his comforts. Grizel 
well help me to find work some day. Then we will 
leave this house.” 

There was no doubt about it. Guelda owned to 
herself she had conceived towards her uncle one of 
those reasonless inveterate dislikes which the best of 
women sometimes entertain towards some being who 
has done them no harm, who may even be trying to 
please them. Be it instinct or prejudice, it is one of 
the hardest of hatreds to conquer. 

“ My mind tells me it is wrong, but his very ap- 
proach makes my flesh creep with dislike,” ended the 
girl truthfully, to herself. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


Hi 


CHAPTER XIX. 

There followed rather more than nine days’ gossip 
in the neighbourhood after the late events at Sheen 
Abbey. 

That Miss Seaton was no longer an heiress excited 
some pity ; but, after all, “ She is so pretty, it doesn’t 
matter,” said the maidens, feeling that fortune was 
fair for once. Some of the young men, more worldly 
prudent, perhaps thought it did matter. But, after 
all, she was certain to become Duchess of Islay, so it 
made no difference to them. 

The extraordinary news of Robert Seaton’s return 
was the main topic. Nevertheless, he had left the 
country so young, while old Lord Lyndon had lived 
such a hermit-life for so many years, that curiosity 
was cooler than would otherwise have been the case. 

“ These Seatons were always strange — the very way 
they got Sheen Abbey was queer,” said the older 
scandal-mongers, who remembered the story of the 
famous game of cards. 

Nevertheless, in spite of natural prejudice against 
Robert Seaton for returning to life in such an un- 
looked-for manner, long files of county carriages 
were soon seen driving towards Sheen to leave cards 
at the Abbey. 

Whatever secret hopes the new lord’s neighbours 
cherished as to “ what he would be like,” were soon, 
however, doomed to disappointment. Their cards 
were received at Sheen, but its new master refused to 
receive any visitors. He would not go out hunting, 
sent excuses when asked to dine — even in a quiet 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


145 


way with the nearest neighbours — was neither seen 
in church nor at the county-town club. In a short 
time word went round that he was a regular misan- 
thrope, and had shut himself up as hermetically as 
did the old lord for so many years, until the young 
grand-daughter of the latter dawned like Aurora 
over the darkness of his life. “ Like father, like son,” 
people said, shaking their heads ; and by Christmas- 
time the new Lord Lyndon’s existence among them 
was almost unheeded. 

Guelda, however, did not agree in the axiom so 
popularly accepted. This son brought a very different 
element into his seclusion from the atmosphere of 
retirement, of leisurely interest in belles lettres and 
somewhat old-fashioned science, as became an accom- 
plished jf lonely gentleman, that had surrounded her 
grandfather. 

No ; Uncle Robert was very different in his tastes. 
She had asked leave to address him as “Uncle 
Robert,” for to give him the Lyndon name in any 
way seemed like touching the still raw wound of her 
sorrow. Guelda had loved the lonely old man, and 
this lord was so different from the last one ! 

Uncle Robert soon announced that he despised 
fine company, but a jolly chap or two to help a man 
in finishing his bottle of wine was his idea of society. 
The boon-companions who were thenceforth invited 
to dine and drink late in the great dining-room at 
Sheen would have made the old lord turn in his 
grave could he have seen the associates of his prodigal 
son — a sporting village doctor, a horse-dealer, one or 
two shady scions of small country families intro- 
duced to his acquaintance by the first-named gentry. 
These helped their host to empty the crusty ’47 port, 
or the fine East Indian Madeira, carousing loudly 
until the small hours. 

Old Hillis and the housekeeper had not long to 
grieve over such a sad change from the old order of 
things, for after the funeral they had respectfully 

IO 


146 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


made known their joint intention of setting up 
housekeeping together in the village, having been 
engaged to be married some five-and-twenty years. 
The new lord, whose father they had so long served, 
gave them to understand that had they not come to 
this decision he had meant to send them pretty 
quickly about their business. When Guelda put in 
a timid plea that they might be granted the humble 
home of their old age rent-free he laughed in her 
face — a quiet, sneering laugh she disliked even more 
than his other coarsely jovial one. 

“My dear, not I ! You may take it for certain 
they have feathered their nest pretty well at my ex- 
pense already.” 

There was mutual regret when the old servants 
and their late young mistress parted. An almost 
general sweep of the rest of the household followed, 
Guelda’s French maid alone being spared. 

“ There is nothing like a change ; new ones take 
better to new ways,” said Uncle Robert carelessly to 
his niece ; “ but I’m keeping J ulie for you — you’d be 
sorry to lose her, I know.” 

It was nearly on the girl’s lips to say she should 
not grieve over much to lose Julie. In the last few 
weeks the abigail’s manner had grown almost inso- 
lent at times. From having been slavishly devoted 
to her young mistress, the instant that she heard the 
latter had lost her promised fortune, Julie showed 
plainly that she considered her own situation as depen- 
dent upon the new master’s pleasure, to whom therefore 
she alone owed allegiance. Yet in a flighty, hot- 
headed way the Frenchwoman was somewhat fond 
of Guelda, who had always been very kind to her. 
This liking she now showed by an irritating air which 
was almost patronising. Her services had become 
favours ; what was still more annoying, she took 
upon herself to give her mistress some very open 
hints concerning Islay ; it was her advice that to 
secure so fine a fortune and title as belonged to the 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


147 


duke would be such a success as not a London lady 
of position but would give five years of her life to 
accomplish. 

Although Guelda checked these remarks at once 
pretty sharply, Julie was not to be beaten, but per- 
sisted in obtruding more hints on every occasion, 
adding at last a broad insinuation that she herself 
would be pleased to give her own services in helping 
the affair — which assistance might be more valuable 
than perhaps people fancied. Angered at this, 
Guelda forbade her with such displeasure to venture 
on the subject again that the maid did stop. With 
a dark look and a short laugh, she, however, muttered, 
so as to be heard, that “ mademoiselle apparently did 
not recognise when one wished to do her a service ; 
but pride must have a fall yet ! ” 

Guelda would have asked to have her maid dis- 
missed, but a lurking suspicion had crept into her 
mind that her uncle might refuse. Twice she had 
herself met the waiting-maid coming out of the red- 
hung study with a cautious step that changed to 
brazen assurance and obviously untruthful and voluble 
explanations on being questioned. More often she 
suspected such meetings took place from many little 
signs and tokens. 

Julie was a swarthy but handsome woman still, 
though decidedly nearing middle-age. Only a week 
after the funeral she had been given a pleasant south 
room, by her new master’s permission, instead of her 
former small servant’s chamber. She wore new silk 
dresses, and merely played at her calling. What did 
it mean ? Guelda, after a few weeks, could not but 
notice all these apparent trifles, that were the more 
evident from the almost utter seclusion of the present 
life at Sheen. 

Though young, from having been thrown so much 
on her own resources in childhood, she had seen much 
of life’s bitter experiences, poor girl ! In her lonely 
cottage existence, in her brave single-handed toil to 

io* 


148 


THE FKEAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


support herself and her little brother, the seamy side 
of human nature had been often forced before the 
young girl’s view. But her pure brown eyes had 
gazed far away, as it were, at the distant hills and 
woods, and scorned to rest curiously on the sin that 
was too often near her door. Her heart had been 
frequently sick with loathing, yet she had pitied. 
With her head high she had gone her way among the 
rough miners and foresters, never forgetting her birth- 
right of gentle descent and the care of conduct it 
entailed ; and the rude but kindly folk had respect- 
fully and sometimes silently protected her. 

Suddenly raised to the enjoyment of her grand- 
father’s rank and riches, his petted and beloved 
heiress, the young beauty had been wise enough to 
discern that thorns still lurked among the roses in her 
new paradise. She joyously delighted in life, yet 
sagely came to the conclusion that human nature was 
much the same in cottage and in abbey, in a lonely 
forest village and in a town. Nevertheless, what 
good friends she found ; and how happy she was ! 

But now for the first time Guelda tasted the bitter- 
ness of being forbidden honest work whilst living 
wholly dependent on the caprice of a relative whom 
she disliked, and, as she soon owned, she also feared. 
Her wits early sharpened, however, thanks to poverty’s 
grindstone, the young girl quickly understood her 
situation and what it behoved her to do. First she 
learned to control her own countenance, no longer 
showing her thoughts clearly therein for all to read, 
as heretofore ; next she tried to watch others closely, 
yet to remain herself unnoticed. The first result of 
this observation was, curiously, to acquit her uncle in 
part of the possible gallantry towards Julie with 
which she had at times been disposed to credit him. 
Once or twice Guelda, passing by unknown, over- 
heard him speaking very surlily to Julie. The latter 
looked black, but pertly answered in a defiant under- 
tone, as if secure of her position. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


149 


A new idea grew in Guelda’s mind, and presently 
took possession there. Julie was Uncle Robert’s spy ! 
Taught by her own instinctive dislike of him, the 
niece guessed rightly that this aversion was returned 
with interest. 

At first her uncle had been somewhat fulsomely 
flattering and disagreeably affectionate in the bland- 
ishments with which he had tried to win his niece, as 
little Bino had been easily drawn to him. But, when 
the young girl shrank visibly from all these advances, 
her guardian changed his mood and began to take 
keen pleasure in annoying her in all manner of under- 
hand ways. 

His new lordship had a most sensitive wish to stand 
well in the opinion of the outside world, although he 
seemed to feel he had unfitted himself for the society 
of his equals in birth. His niece soon became aware 
he would not try to quarrel openly with “ his dear 
brother Bertrand’s orphans,” and that also he regarded 
herself in the light of a future duchess, who ought, if 
possible, to be propitiated beforehand — for he had a 
slavish adulation for rank and wealth superior to his 
own ; but, should she fail to make this marriage, 
Guelda knew he would treat her at once as an encum- 
brance. Already he had grumbled at the expenses 
of her mourning, although shamed by Julie’s loud 
protestations, the maid’s display of black attire for the 
late lord being far more ostentatious than Guelda’s 
own. 

Furthermore, the poor girl had not a farthing of 
pocket-money to spend, beyond a little hoard she 
carefully kept for possible future necessities. This 
was what remained of her grandfather’s last munifi- 
cent birthday gift. At this sign of parsimony, Julie 
likewise grumbled a little. “ It was miserly when 
milord was so rich — ridiculous ! ” 

Grateful for even so much womanly sympathy, 
though offended at the patronizing air with which 
it was given, Guelda hereupon sagely reflected that a 


150 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


spy who has a fitful liking for the victim is better at 
least than one who is altogether an enemy. 

Meanwhile, what had become of Ronald Airlie all 
these weeks? Immediately after her departure from 
Islay Castle and the news of old Lord Lyndon’s 
death, Guelda received daily letters from him so brim- 
ming with affection, so full of tact in his manner of 
showing sympathy with her sorrow, that they were 
her hourly consolation. 

When the news that there was no will came like a 
thunderbolt upon the small funeral-party — although, 
as the family lawyer suggested and all agreed, the 
late lord had only destroyed his last one in order to 
make a different disposition of his ready money and 
some provision for little Bertrand, according as old 
Hillis related his late master’s last coherent remarks 
— Guelda had written briefly this news to her lover, 
adding a pathetic entreaty : 

“ Come down and see me about this very soon, I 
implore of you ; come for my sake, just this once ! ” 

“ I cannot write to him coldly that we must part for 
his own good ; but I can explain matters to him ; he 
will understand when I tell him that Bino is a help- 
less child whom it is my duty to care for and support, 
and that my little lad and I will not be burdens about 
his neck,” thought the poor child, proudly, wiping 
away the hot, great tears that welled up to her eyes. 

She knew well that Ronald would generously 
declare that little Bertrand must henceforth be his 
charge as well as hers — that the loss of her fortune 
was as nothing in his eyes ; nay, that he would rejoice 
in showing her that his love at least was disinterested. 
But had not Grizel once by chance laughingly ob- 
served to her cousin that Islay himself would have 
made a better poor man than Airlie? The duke’s 
tastes indeed were far more simple, and his chief 
delight in his own wide-spreading moors and noble 
woods, even in his grand, historical houses in England 
and Scotland, filled with treasures of art and family 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 151 

relics, precious heirlooms through centuries, and with- 
out question his main pleasure when entertaining 
crowds of guests, consisted in the still greater enjoy- 
ment Ronald Airlie, his more than brother, took in 
all these luxuries of sport and princely hospitalities 
that were so well suited to his generous and genial 
nature. 

Ah, yes ! Guelda knew the jesting words were true, 
and Lady Grizel little guessed at the time how deeply 
they had sunk into one listener’s heart. 

“ I will tell him when he comes — for I must see 
him once more to say good-bye,” she thought, in 
passionate renunciation. 

So she waited ; but no answer came. Day by day 
went by till a month was past ; but still no letter in 
that loved handwriting gladdened her aching eyes. 
Each night she said to herself, “It will come to- 
morrow.” Each morrow she tried to stay her sinking 
heart with the hope, “ He will not write, because he is 
coming before his letter. Perhaps he is on his journey 
at this very minute.” 

No news came lately from Grizel ; but this was only 
because the latter had busied herself, on leaving 
Scotland, with the details of her plan for dedicating 
her life henceforth to the poor. In a letter of con- 
dolence on the death of her friend’s grandfather, Lady 
Grizel added the brief, but significant news that she 
herself was about to enter a sisterhood immediately, 
in order to learn its system for a while. She had 
resolved to receive no letters during her probation 
lest her mind should be diverted to worldly sub- 
jects, and trusted Guelda would not think this un- 
kind. 

Lady Grizel had her own secret trouble with 
which she was battling. She, of course, never heard, 
by reason of her voluntary seclusion, that her only 
girl-friend was again plunged in poverty ; the future 
sister of mercy had only pictured her unconscious 
rival as rich, free, and consoled in her temporary 


152 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


grief by the happiness of possessing Ronald Airlie’s 
love. 

There was no help, therefore, from Grizel ; but, in 
any case, if Airlie would not write himself, Guelda 
thought shame to ask news of him. As to Islay, after 
the scene in the glen, his forests and moors and guests 
had become odious to him for awhile. His shooting- 
party was soon broken up, and he had started in his 
yacht on a solitary cruise. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


153 


CHAPTER XX. 

Of all the neighbours around Sheen, Lady Ermyn- 
trude Gamble alone succeeded in making the ac- 
quaintance of its new owner. 

Although not much has been said of this faded 
beauty, it may be remembered that she looked upon 
Guelda with sharp jealousy as having entirely con- 
quered, and at first sight, the love of Islay, whose 
waning attentions had till then been retained at much 
pains by her ladyship. Nevertheless, as a clever 
woman of the world, she dissembled her feelings, 
became one of Guelda’s most enthusiastic flatterers 
in addressing old Lord Lyndon, and won upon the 
grandfather thus to invite herself and her rich, vulgar 
spouse to the harvest revels. Thence the duke asked 
them on to Islay Castle, feeling a surprised gratitude 
at the sensible manner in which the object of his 
former boyish allegiance bore his desertion of herself, 
even in confidence congratulating him on his new 
“ real love,” sighing just a little, as if in contemplation 
of his future happiness — a happiness which she herself 
had missed in marriage. 

When it was whispered among the guests at Islay 
Castle that handsome Ronald Airlie was the duke’s 
successful rival, none had been so inwardly elated as 
Lady Ermyntrude. And now that she was once 
more at her country seat near Sheen, and heard the 
news of Robert Seaton’s return and the loss of Guelda’s 
fortune thereby, she resolved to find out exactly how 
the land lay. 

Several intimate neighbours had kindly endeavoured 
to see Guelda herself since the funeral ; but all were 


154 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


refused admittance by Uncle Robert’s express orders. 
Lady Ermyntrude, however, got out of her carriage 
at the lodge, and took her way to the house by a 
devious path which she knew led through the more 
private grounds and the garden. Asking for informa- 
tion of any gardener or woodman whom she met as 
to the likelihood of finding Miss Seaton or the new 
Lord Lyndon, the latter was soon pointed out to her 
ladyship. He was solitarily smoking a pipe under a 
sunny peach wall, and sauntering with his thumbs in 
his waistcoat arm-holes, a soft hat on the back of his 
head, and an expression of satisfied enjoyment on his 
pale countenance upturned skywards. 

Lady Ermyntrude paused. 

“ A cold, cruel face — very like his picture, but 
grown -harder no doubt with age,” she thought, recon- 
noitring unseen. “ What a bad carriage and vulgar 
walk, acquired evidently among low people — just 
what I expected from his career ! ” 

Whereupon she went swiftly forward, held out both 
hands with the sweetest of smiles, congratulating the 
astonished master of Sheen on his return home, and 
prettily hoping he would excuse the liberty in a neigh- 
bour and old friend of the family of thus trespassing 
on his privacy ; but she was ordered walking-exercise 
by her doctor, therefore had ventured to leave her 
carriage. And did he not remember her ? As a 
child, years ago indeed, when in the nursery, she 
might say — laughing coquettishly — she surely recalled 
Robert Seaton coming to stay at her father’s place in 
Essex ; and the These’s and Those’s were of the 
party, she believed — would that bring her back to his 
memory ? “ As to you, I should have know you any- 

where ! ” she fluently added, although the visit referred 
to was almost apocryphal ; she had a mere vague idea 
that in long bygone days she might have met young 
Robert Seaton. 

The latter, now a wide-awake man, was quite aware 
of her clever ruse. But, with his dark eyes watching 


TIIE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


155 


her intently out of their corners, he accepted this feat 
of memory with a queer little smile, covertly pocketed 
his pipe, and, though considerably annoyed at being 
taken thus unawares in spite of his known dislike to 
visitors, allowed himself to be amused. He conducted 
Lady Ermyntrude through the gardens and back to 
the house, both entertaining each other so well that 
there was very little time left when her ladyship 
remembered that she had come to visit Guelda. 

As the young girl appeared, looking very pale in 
her deep mourning, the visitor became at once subdued 
and regretful in manner. 

“Poor dear! — so sad ! To think of how gay we 
all were so lately ! ” she murmured sighing. “ I fear 
your grandfather went out far too much in London — • 
don’t you ? — it was too great a strain for a man of his 
years.” 

After a few minute inquiries, then, as to the late 
lord’s sufferings and last moments, eminently calcu- 
lated to consolingly open afresh the wounds of her 
hearers, milady added, with a livelier manner and a 
condescending smile : 

“ And what news from all our friends who were at 
Islay Castle, eh ? You know,” turning to her host, 
“ this dear girl had some great friends there.” 

“ The duke and Lady Grizel are very thick with 
her, I believe,” answered Uncle Robert, with his 
cunning smile, that wrinkled the corners of his eyes, 
turned upon his niece, who murmured some confused 
words. 

“ O, I don’t mean him ! ” exclaimed Lady Ermyn- 
trude. “ She has others — perhaps I ought to say one 
other still greater friend — in fact, I hope to be allowed 
to congratulate her upon her engagement to Captain 
Airlie. Well, not yet, I suppose” — as Guelda re- 
mained mute — “ however, some day it is certain to be 
announced, I feel confident. Good-bye, dear ! Thanks, 
Lord Lyndon ! If you will walk to the lodge after 
my boring you so unmercifully, it will be delightful ; 


156 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

I shall certainly tell everyone you are as clever as 
your father, though I fear as sad a woman-hater as he 
was. Let us talk of old times, when you and I first 
knew each other.” 

Uncle Robert apparently liked talking of old times 
so well that he actually accepted an invitation to dine 
quietly with Lady Ermyntrude and her husband ; 
nay, more, he went often, when assured she would be 
alone, and even — but this was in later days — allowed 
himself to be persuaded into meeting some few other 
neighbours, after distinct assurances from her ladyship 
that they would not be “ too fine for him ; ” indeed, 
he carefully inquired beforehand who they would be. 

Meanwhile, Lady Ermyntrude was not ill-pleased 
to be known as the only being who could tempt her 
St. Senanus, as she described him, from his solitude. 
She owned he was rather eccentric — quite a cynic, 
you know — who affected a little boorishness in his 
dislike of society’s false tone, but through it all one 
could see the true gentleman by birth. 

The true gentleman soon sought an explanation 
from Guelda as to Captain Airlie. 

“ Who is the fellow — what has he got ? That is 
the question.” 

“ I cannot tell you exactly, Uncle Robert ; but he 
is not well-off, I believe,” she answered, trying hard 
to control her unsteady voice. 

“What, some poor devil of a younger son, with 
only his tailor’s bill in his pocket, who thought you 
were going to be an heiress ? Ha, ha ! By Jove, my 
girl, that won’t do, now ! Come, put him out of your 
head, and marry the duke ! ” 

“ I will marry no one ! ” flushed out Guelda, in hot 
anger, for her heart was sore within her, and they 
would not let her grieve in peace. “ But, please, 
never speak so of Captain Airlie to me again ; he is 
one of the noblest men living, the one for whom I 
care more than for anyone on earth, and his fallen 
fortunes ought to be treated with more respect in this 


The freaks of lady fortune. 


157 


house, which ought perhaps to be still his by right.” 
With these words she walked out of the room. 

“Whew,” came from Uncle Robert’s lips, as he 
looked after her, “ I thought so ! This must be seen 
to, my beauty ! ” 

This conversation and Lady Ermyntrude’s visit had 
happened very shortly after Lord Lyndon’s death. 
Four dreary weeks then went by with ever-increasing 
doubts, wonder, and love’s grief and torments for the 
sorrowful late young mistress of Sheen. 

One afternoon she went out for a lonely stroll. 
Bino always deserted her now ; he was busy ratting 
with Uncle Robert — a pursuit both seemed to enjoy 
with keen delight. 

Guelda went slowly among the sodden autumn 
leaves that lay underfoot, towards one of her favourite 
spots. This was a circular plot of old greensward 
near the fishponds, ringed by a gravel-walk and 
fenced in by high yew hedges. In the centre of the 
grass-plot lay several recumbent stone effigies, some 
of which, in spite of ravages of time and weather 
through centuries, still showed abbots’ mitres and 
indistinct croziers carved in the lichened granite ; 
others represented knights in armour, with odd little 
sculptured hounds at their feet. It had been the 
former burial-ground of the abbots of Sheen. 

As the girl slowly paced round and round, buried 
in sad thoughts, her eyes on the ground, a voice 
suddenly* made her heart stand still a moment or 
two, though, immediately after, all the blood in her 
body seemed surging through its veins faster than 
ever before, in a wild torrent of rupture. 

“ Guelda !” the voice said ; and, turning her head, 
she saw Ronald Airlie standing only a step from her, 
in one of the openings of the yew hedge. 

“ You have come at last — at last,” exclaimed the 
girl, putting out both her hands in an impulse of the 
affection that so possessed her it could not yet be 
restrained while her brown eyes, to which the glad 


158 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


light of love had leaped gloriously, looked with a 
tender reproach in his. 

Airlie grasped her hands tightly, and drawing 
nearer, gazed down at the beautiful face, that was 
now all sweetly rosy, as intently as if his eyes were 
trying to read her very soul. 

She went on almost babbling in her confusion of 
great joy, yet of impending deeper sadness. 

“ But — but, what does it all mean ? O, Ronald, I 
have so much to tell you — sometimes my heart 
seemed broken! Yet — no, I would not have you 
think that — I would wish you to have only happy 
thoughts of me always. And tell me why did you 
never write ? ” 

“ Not write ! — why did you never write to me, my 
dearest ? ” was Ronald’s answer, still holding her close, 
while a deep line of trouble came between his brows, 
and his voice had a ring of reproach under the loving 
tone which last made Guelda’s heart flutter within 
her. “ Not one line, little lady, in answer to all mine ; 
so at last I could stand the suspense no longer, and, 
without warning, here I came.” 

“ No letter of mine ; none, none ? O, Ronald, and 
I wrote imploring you — days, weeks ago — to come 
soon, and I never heard once from you since then.” 

“You did not? I wrote every single day! I 
thought you would possibly think me a fool for my 
pains ; but that mattered nothing if you were in 
trouble and I could help you. Each day I imagined 
some new reason for your silence, and tried to argue 
it away. I think I should have gone mad with 
fearing you were ill, but that I invented some excuse 
to write to Lady Ermyntrude, your neighbour, and 
she answered me she had seen you, and that you 
looked well and happy. My poor darling, that last 
was not true, I am afraid.” 

And overcome with a great pity, as he now noticed 
a sorrowful change in his sweetheart’s appearance — 
dark circles under her eyes telling of grief and sleep- 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


159 


lessness, a dimming of those brown orbs, even already 
a slight hollow in her cheeks — Airlie drew her into a 
lover’s embrace. 

“But what does it all mean?” uttered the girl, 
presently remembering herself and trembling. “ O, 
Ronald, those letters ! My uncle must have stopped 
them, and I am afraid of him ! -Why did he do it ?” 

“ Heaven only knows ! But who cares ? He is 
not your legal guardian, my child ; you are perfectly 
free. What matters it about our letters, now we have 
each other this minute and for always — have we 
not ? ” 

And Ronald tried to banish the fears of this young 
tender creature, who was his chief treasure in the 
world. She trembled like a little bird in his arms ; 
but now he had come, and none should frighten her 
any more. She was his goddess, his star, and yet it 
should be his sweet task to shield and protect her as 
a weaker being whilst their lives lasted. To him the 
loveliest, loveablest woman he had ever seen, she was 
still lovelier now, transfigured by her late weeping 
and watching into a paler, sadder beauty that 
appealed inexpressibly to all his manly feelings of 
pity and deep sympathy as well as to his love. Great 
as this had been, he found that still a greater rush of 
love — deeper feelings of his soul than he had dreamed 
of owning — streamed out to meet her. 

But with a sudden effort Giielda freed herself a 
little from his clasp, and, looking up with eyes full of 
agonised trouble replacing their late joy, murmured : 

“ I am wicked to let you be here with me, and not 
tell you what has happened ! Ronald, my grand- 
father left no will, and I have nothing in the world — 
that is why I wrote you ” 

Ronald Airlie laughed out cheerily, and stopped 
the further faltering words upon her lips by contact of 
his own that softly intercepted speech. Then he 
answered : 

“ I know it all, dear. It is common report that you 


160 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


are no heiress now. I am sorry for your sake ; for 
my own, I am frankly -delighted. Don’t think me 
very selfish, but I hated to feel I could give you 
nothing more than you would already have ; now my 
little all will suffice for us both.” 

“ No, Ronald, no— that is why I wanted to see you 
just once more to say good-bye, for your sake, dear — 
not for mine — I would not hamper your life.” 

Guelda was white to the lips, but her sad voice was 
firm. 

“ What,” exclaimed the young man, in a frenzy of 
feeling, “ give you up, and for my sake ! Can it be 
possible that you wish this for your own ? ” — holding 
her back from him hastily. But the pale face, full of 
beseeching sorrow, that met his stern gaze dispelled 
all maddening doubts. “ No, you do love me,” he 
uttered, with a sigh of relief, “ thank Heaven ! ” 

“Yes, I love you, and I shall never love anyone 
else as I love you — never ! ” was Guelda’s firm 
response. . 

“ Then I will never give you up — that I swear ! — 
unless you yourself wish to marry some one else,” 
cried the young man, once more taking possession of 
her in his strong arms, in spite of her protestations 
that yet were but half-hearted. 

He allowed her to tell her tale, just for the delight 
of seeing her grief at their possible parting and of 
quickly dispersing it — of overbearing all her objec- 
tions as to little Bertrand — of chiding or kissing away 
all her fears. Lost in mutual contemplation, while 
the yew-hedged burial-place seemed a little lovers’ 
paradise, neither heard a tread, cautious as that of a 
cat, approaching. 

All on a sudden Uncle Robert’s chuckling laugh in 
their very ears made both lovers start asunder. 

“ He, he, he ! — a very edifying spectacle ! Will 
you Le good enough, sir, to leave my grounds at 
once ? ” 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


161 


CHAPTER XXL 

After Uncle Robert had so rudely dispelled the 
almost sacred happiness of the lovers’ interview, 
Guelda could only confusedly recall what followed. 

There were angry words between the two men. 
But while the new Lord Lyndon was insolent, with 
the mean triumph of well-assured place and wealth 
glittering in his half-shut eyes as he surveyed the man 
upon whose birthright he was standing as master, 
Airlie, though pale with passion, kept unruffled and 
calm in his haughty self-possession, not a word or 
gesture escaping him but such as was worthy of 
himself as a gentleman. He bore himself quietly 
under the uncle’s coarsely uttered inquiries as to what 
he meant, and angry orders to give up all thought of 
Guelda. 

“ I know who you are,” said. Lyndon— “ I found ’ 
your card up at the house. Captain Airlie — a poor 
hanger-on to the Duke of Islay, your cousin, 
forsooth ! ” 

Airlie’s eyes gleamed dangerously for a moment ; 
but, deigning no notice of the insult, he unmovedly 
repeated that, as Miss Seaton was free and had done 
him the honour of promising to become his wife, he 
hoped to marry her the first day that she herself 
would name. Uncle Robert taunted him with his 
poverty ; and then turning on Guelda, who stood by 
with quivering lips and a heart bursting with anger at 
the discourtesy shown to Airlie, he went on, with a 
sneer : 

“ Two beggars together ! Well, it is easy to see 
you take after your mother, the Italian organ-grinder. 
There is not much, if any, of the Seaton blood in you. 

II 


162 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE, 


Throw over the duke like a pretty fool, but don’t 
come whining with a troop of brats afterwards asking 
me to support them. You won’t get a penny from me ! ” 

“ I would accept none ! ” retorted Guelda, with 
hotly-flashing anger, inherited from her mother’s 
Southern blood and her father’s race. “ A Seaton — I 
wonder you call yourself one ! I can hardly believe 
when I look at you that you are my grandfather’s son. 
He loved me, and, were he alive, you would not dare 
to treat me as you have done.” 

Her uncle’s face turned perfectly livid. Even in 
her tempest of anger Guelda was electrified at the 
change made in his features by rage as his usual mask 
of reserve was dropped. 

“You dare to speak so to me — your uncle! You 
shall pay dearly for this ! ” he snarled. Then, 
grasping her with a quick but vicious twist that hurt 
her sharply, he went on, between his teeth, “ You 
might have had a chance of your fortune if you had 
tried some of the pretty graces on me you can air to 
others, you minx ! But now ” 

He was stopped short, being hurled back by a far 
stronger arm than his own, that had caught him and 
was giving him a violent shaking. Powerless in 
Ronald Airlie’s grasp, every bone in the new Lord 
Lyndon’s body must have rattled before he was set 
free, gasping and cowed. 

“ There ! — your niece, I hope, will no longer remain 
under the roof of such a cur as a man who can 
threaten a defenceless girl ! ” said Airlie sternly, 
standing over him. “ But Miss Seaton is not friend- 
less. It shall be known through the county how, 
after enjoying the fortune your father meant to leave 
her, you use personal violence to your brother’s 
orphaned girl.” 

To his scornful surprise, his miserable opponent 
broke into feeble apologies and protestations. 

“ I never meant to hurt her ! I have always been 
kind to her and the boy. You know I refused to 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 163 

let you go out into the world and work,” turning with 
an almost abject appeal to Guelda. “ I’ve been glad 
enough to keep you both in good clothes and the 
rest of it, and I say so still. I ain’t a bad sort, after 
all, though I’ve had a rough time knocking about all 
these years. As to ill-treating you, Guelda, I’ve tried 
to show good-will to you as my brother’s daughter, 
but you never would like me. I believe you hated 
me from the first.” He drew the back of his hand 
across his eyes as he spoke, and there was a convulsive 
sound in his throat. 

Guelda, facing him with still heaving bosom and 
burning brown eyes, felt his indictment was true, and 
was almost ashamed of herself. 

“ Come, look here,” went on Uncle Robert, with a 
cringing air of conciliation ; “ let us all be friends ! 
You had better come back to my roof, my dear, or 
gossip will be set going if you leave with nowhere to 
go to. Marry when you like ; it’s nothing to me ! 
As to you, Captain Airlie, you have insulted and 
nearly throttled me — a man old enough to be your 
father, sir — I say only this, that if you are a gentle- 
man you — you will remember everyone has a right to 
his own land, and you are trespassing here.” 

He had recovered some portion of his courage as 
he watched Airlie’s face, that had changed to mere 
contempt during the last few minutes after his first 
paroxysm of wrath. 

The latter accepted the hint, and, with the self- 
possessed manner of a well-bred gentleman, turned 
to Guelda. 

“ He is right,” he said ; “ for the present it must be 
so. But I shall come to claim you very soon.” 

“ No, no,” she whispered, so low that her Uncle 
Robert was not likely to hear her, her former fears 
and Grizel’s warning having returned with fresh 
terrifying force to her mind. “ Leave me to my fate. 
It cannot be as you wish. You will thank me some 


164 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE, 


“ Do you really mean that ? ” asked Ronald as low, 
in an altered voice, looking fixedly at her. 

“ Yes,” murmured Guelda faintly, her lips hardly 
framing the words that her heart longed to alter into 
“ No.” 

Airlie silently bowed over her hand as he raised it 
to his lips, and, with a slight gesture of farewell to. 
the man he had so lately chastised and a strange look 
on his face, walked quietly away. Guelda felt as if 
her heart died within her whilst she watched him. 

She had sent him away for his own sake. And he 
— did he understand? Would he misjudge her? 

Three weeks later it was announced in the news- 
papers that Captain Airlie had volunteered for active 
service, and was under orders for Egypt. 

And what of Guelda Seaton’s life in the time that 
followed ? Day after day, night after night, she knew 
the torment of doubting her own judgment in sending 
away Ronald Airlie — of feeling that his pain and 
possibly his misconception of her motive increased 
her own pain. What had she gained by it? She 
had lost her only protector, and was almost utterly 
alone in the world. 

Bertrand, her little brother — surely she was right 
neither to desert him nor make him a weight upon one 
on whom the boy had no claim ? But the little 
fellow had swerved from his allegiance to her. Day 
after day the boy made hasty excuses if asked to stay 
a little with his sister, or entreated to begin his 
lessons again, though lovingly coaxed, caressed, with 
every wile that fondest affection could suggest. 

Guelda began to feel as if she had made her sacri- 
fice in vain. Could it be that Bino, to whom she had 
been a little mother when their own mother died, the 
child for whom she had toiled, herself almost still a 
child — to whom she, though hungry, had so often 
given her last crust — could it be that he had ceased 
to care for her ? She felt like one whose child has 


TIIE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


165 


inflicted that bitterest pang to a mother’s heart of in- 
gratitude. She called up all the pictures of the past 
before her mind : Bino as the puling black-eyed babe 
the little sister had rocked for hours to sleep in her 
arms at night ; then, grown older, how she had 
carried him on her shoulder, played with him, been so 
proud to bring home her pennies for him when first 
she began to work. He had been her chief thought 
these nine years, till Ronald Airlie came. And 
now ! 

One morning Guelda went out with the daily 
almost vain hope of persuading her little brother to 
come with her for a few minutes’ talk. Bertrand 
had not done an hour’s lessons since their grandfather 
died. In vain she had begged that he might be sent 
back to his late tutor, the curate. Uncle Robert had 
laughed and promised, delayed a week — joked again, 
and delayed still more. But if the boy, whom he 
petted and treated as a live toy, were to ask for 
education as a favour he might consent. Guelda 
arranged the loving words in her own mind. She 
would remind Bertrand how big he was getting — 
certainly he was growing very tall, too tall perhaps 
for his years — and would make him take pride in the 
thought that soon he would be a man and able to 
work for himself. He must go back to lessons and 
learn ; then he would certainly make a great fortune, 
he was so clever ; he drew little figures of men and 
horses already with such amazing quickness that he 
would very likely be a great painter; and then he 
had a wonderful ear for music, and might instead 
become one day a composer ; who could say ? 

As this innocent schemer approached the stable- 
yard, she heard the sounds of some commotion going 
on. She hesitated; but, distinguishing her young 
brother’s voice, was moved by curiosity to look in. 
What she saw made all the blood in her body boil 
up with indignation. 

Her grandfather’s pet mastiff, aged truly, but still 


166 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


handsome and hearty, was lying on the ground 
muzzled, while one of the new stablemen lately 
engaged was kicking and ‘beating the poor animal to 
make him rise, and another was dragging at a cord 
round his neck, half-strangling the dog. Uncle 
Robert stood by chuckling, with his hat on the back 
of his head and his thumbs in his arm-holes. 

“ Stir him up — that’s it ! Have you got the bag of 
stones to tie round his neck ? Prod him in the ribs, 
Bertie, my son. We’ll make him march like a hero 
to his grave. He, he, he ! ” 

Bino, with a child’s thoughtlessness, or perhaps 
having inherited some of the proverbial Italian cruelty 
to animals, was indeed foremost in the group halloo- 
ing and capering. In another second Guelda had 
sprung among them, dispersing the men by her 
unexpected appearance. She tore the rope out of 
the groom’s hand. 

“ Go back, Bertrand — stand off, you men ! ” she 
exclaimed, like a young virago, commanding them 
all. Then, heedless of consequences in her brave 
defence of the weak, she turned with disgust and 
indignation upon her uncle. 

“ Shame ! shame upon you all, and you most, 
Uncle Robert, for such a wicked deed ! Look how 
old Nero is licking my feet — he knew you were going 
to drown him ! If you must kill this favourite of 
your father’s, before he is two months in his grave, 
could you not do it in some painless, more decent 
way than this ? Or what harm would it do you to 
let this poor dumb beast live a little longer ? ” 

“ Thank you,” replied her uncle, pulling off his hat 
with an ironical bow. “ How many more useless 
encumbrances would you like me to keep eating 
their heads off at my expense ? Get along out of 
this, young lady! We’ll give the old brute a few 
more parting reminders for your sake, just to thank 
you for interfering.” 

“ If you had never come home ” said Guelda, beside 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


167 


herself, “ you know that the old dog would have been 
petted and treated well as long as he could enjoy 
life.” 

“ And you would have had your fortune, my pretty 
dear ; so it was about time I did turn up here, eh ? ” 
jeered his lordship, with an ugly look on his face. 

What possessed Guelda she could never tell, unless 
it was the utter meanness and malignity of the man’s 
tone and look that seemed like a sudden revelation of 
his inner self. But, always a creature of impulse, she 
cried out aloud a sudden thought that rose in her 
mind, hardly knowing her lips framed it in speech. 

“ I do not believe you are my uncle, Robert Seaton, 
at all ! What son who pretended to weep for his 
father as you did would behave as you are doing ? 
If anyone told me you were an impostor, I could 
easily credit it.” 

The grooms and stable-helpers stood by open- 
mouthed at the brave way in which this mere girl did 
battle with the master they all already disliked and 
despised. Much gossip as to his unknown doings in 
Australia and unflattering surmises thereon were rife 
among them ; so the men were secretly gratified. As 
to Bertrand, he stood petrified, his little soul frightened 
to its centre. 

Lord Lyndon had certainly turned paler than 
usual, and remained as if speechless a few moments 
at the effrontery of this attack ; but then he answered 
very quietly, though in a constrained voice and with 
bent brows : 

“ Really ! And may I ask, Miss Seaton, what you 
would consider right behaviour for my father’s son ? 
Giving you this old brute, I suppose, to crawl about 
till he is blind and toothless ? ” 

“Yes,” said Guelda, still with the same breathless, 
strange feeling upon her. 

“Take him then,” said Lyndon, with a short laugh ; 
and, turning to the men, observed, “ Women are hard 
to please. They won’t even believe a father when 


168 


THE FftEAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


h£ recognises the son he knew at one-and-twenty., 
Perhaps this will satisfy her.” 

There was an answering murmur of satisfaction 
from the group, but it was at the escape of the dog, 
which most had secretly voted a fine beast, that 
deserved a better end. 

“ May I do what I like with Nero? ” asked Guelda. 
“ Will you let me give him away ? ” 

“ Whatever you please, so long as I hear no more 
of the brute,” answered Lyndon, with a curse. 

Guelda walked away with her head high, holding 
the dog’s collar, and went straight to the village. 

“ Hillis,” she said, entering the former butler’s 
cottage, “ I have brought you a pensioner ; but I can’t 
afford to . pay you for him.” And she told him the 
story. 

“So long as I have a bit or sup, Nero shall never 
want his,” answered Hillis, cheerily, who* seemed 
rejuvenated by his marriage, though owning he felt 
sadly out of employment without his accustomed 
duties. But under “ Master Robert ” he could not 
serve. 

“Tell me,” went on his late young mistress, with 
curious earnestness, “ should you have recognised this 
Lord Lyndon when he came here unless he had told 
you who he was ? 

Hillis looked puzzled. 

“ Well, Miss Guelda, that’s hard to say. A man 
alters so much with years, you see ; but when he 
come to remind me of things that had happened 
when he was a boy, that only him and me would 
have remembered, except it might be your father, 
why, then, that settled it.” 

“ I suppose so,” said Guelda, musing ; but she was 
not feeling convinced. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


169 


CHAPTER XXII. 

From this time forward Guelda began to find herself 
subjected to a domestic espionage that presently 
became a daily petty and sometimes contemptible, 
but none the less torturing, inquisition. She knew 
for certain now that her letters had been stopped, so 
she wrote no more. Indeed, to whom could she 
write? Not to Grizel, till the latter emerged from 
her retreat. Alas, not to Ronald ! 

What other friends had she ? For the kindly 
acquaintances, even the ardent admirers she had 
counted by scores in the summer, seemed as if fled 
or dead in her present solitude and seclusion. Guelda 
had known none of them well enough to justify her 
writing to any for advice or assistance. And Islay, 
could she even have found means to post a letter to 
him, was tossing about at sea no one knew where. 

Even her walks were now taken under supervision, 
for Julie was ordered to be always in attendance upon 
her. 

“It was more correct to have a chaperon when 
there was no knowing who might be meeting her 
next about the woods and walks,” said Uncle Robert, 
alluding with a sneer to Airlie’s one solitary visit. 

She began to know that she was watched, dis- 
trusted, disliked by her new uncle with absolute 
hatred, as she thought, judging from little signs ; or 
could it be fear ? On the other hand, Guelda herself 
was beset by the latter feeling at times, as new doubts 
began to haunt her. What if her wild suspicion 
proved true, that this man was not really Robert 
Seaton at all? In that case she would be living 


170 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


under the supposed guardianship of an impostor, 
perhaps worse. 

A thousand trifles, though light as air, yet seemed 
to point towards the confirmation of her secret sup- 
position. The man’s manner at times towards herself, 
which at first had been more familiar than, or different 
from, what their relationship warranted, a vulgarity 
of thought and often of speech, an ignorance of the 
usages of good society, which no number of vagabond 
years could seem to account for. 

No, this so-called uncle of hers was not a gentle- 
man ; never could have been bred as one to man- 
hood’s age. Guelda remembered to have heard that 
her Uncle Robert, in spite of his wildness, had made 
a very creditable figure at college in classics and 
history, inheriting his father’s qualities of intellect. 
But, having tried to draw this uncle back to these 
subjects, as a more common bond between them than 
his ordinary conversation of a few remarks on the 
weather, jesting compliments or veiled sneers on her 
looks, according to his humour, and teasing chaff 
directed at Bino, she found he avoided her efforts, 
while some flagrant blunders into which he was 
betrayed showed he had utterly forgotten all such 
knowledge, if he had ever possessed it. On the 
other hand, he puzzled her by showing a fair 
acquaintance with foreign languages. And this man 
seemed to know absolutely nothing of a great portion 
of the family history, though his memory was so 
remarkably good on other points. But Lord Lyndon, 
his father, had recognised him ; and so did Lady 
Ermyntrude. “ Am I going mad ? ” Guelda pressed 
her hands to her throbbing temples, racked with the 
pros and cons her mind arranged now on this side, 
now on the other. 

“ I cannot help it ! ” she exclaimed at last. “ I may 
be thought of doubtful sanity — there does not seem a 
grain of common sense in my idea, and I can’t argue 
it out ! But, though logic and facts and everyone 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


171 


clse’s opinion may be against me, I don’t believe he 
is Robert Seaton. Robert Seaton was a gentleman ; 
this man is an illiterate boor.” 

Having once grasped this decision, Guelda felt 
helped out of the quagmire of doubts and confusion 
of attempted reasoning in which her mind had been 
floundering. However terrible the idea, however 
reasonless the process by which her mind had arrived 
at it, she felt convinced — and there was an end of 
useless self-argument. 

Now she could look around from this new stand- 
point and survey the situation. The orphan girl 
reflected that Bertrand and herself were living 
defenceless in the power of a supposed guardian, who 
in truth had unscrupulously robbed them both, and 
must wish them out of his path. Why even although 
her grandfather had himself destroyed his last will — - 
and she began to have her suspicions on this head — - 
yet still Sheen Abbey, the Lyndon title and fortune, 
all belonged, she believed, to little Bertrand at this 
very moment ; the child who was treated as a 
dependent, encouraged to consort with the stable- 
boys, denied any education. 

Guelda raised her head, feeling strong with a great 
secret resolution. 

“ I must find out who he is ; it shall be my business 
in life henceforth to unmask him, and win back my 
little brother’s rightful inheritance ! ” was the vow the 
elder sister made then and there in her heart. 

Strange, she thought sadly, that Sheen Abbey 
should be thus twice wrested from its lawful owner- 
ship ! Could it be that a curse rested on the place 
since her grandfather had won this fair demesne with 
the grand old house standing among its swelling hills 
and deep woods ? The task gave the girl a renewed 
interest in life. Her own existence might, nay, must 
be, joyless, loveless, henceforth, and the duty of 
supporting oneself alone is not enough grist for the 
mind’s* mill when a woman is young, strong, and 


172 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


ardent. No thought that by this means she could 
recover her own lost thousands, even should fortune 
favour her wild scheme, crossed Guelda’s mind. She 
supposed it impossible to regain her own dowry, if 
even Bertrand recovered his inheritance. She was 
perfectly unselfish in her self-dedication. 

Two things now seemed needful. The one, to 
induce her little brother to go away with her at oncp,, 
when she hoped to keep them both at first by selling 
the presents and trinkets her grandfather had given 
her, until she could find better means of support. 
The other was to win Julie. 

“Uncle Robert” (her mind rejected the name 
instantly and substituted “ he ”) “ has promised her a 
large sum no doubt to serve him ; I will promise her 
a still greater one to serve me. It is only a question 
of higher price ; and Islay will help me to fight 
Bertrand’s battles, I know,” decided the young girl, 
almost cheerfully. 

Her courage rose at even the distant prospect of 
success, and though her spirits quailed at moments 
thinking of the secret, perhaps severe struggle that 
lay before her, she nerved herself again, remembering 
it was her duty to protect the little boy, who had no 
other near relation. She resolved to begin with 
Julie. 

“ If I win her, there are two of us against him. If 
not, there still remains to me to leave the house 
taking Bino with me. I am his sister, and our old 
lawyer told me I was the boy’s natural guardian.” 

Whereupon for some days in their walk through 
the wintry woods, in long discourses, and by all the 
wiles her ingenuity could devise, the young mistress 
strove to win her waiting-maid’s confidence. The 
black-eyed Parisian was not slow to understand as 
much ; indeed, in all that concerned female stratagem 
she must have looked with a smile of contemptuous 
amusement upon the efforts of such a tyro. She 
feigned want of comprehension for a few days, till, 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


173 


having drawn her opponent on beyond retreat, she 
turned, as it were, and adroitly met her half-way. 

“ Vraiment milord is a sad uncle to have ! Such a 
life as this is in this old Abbey — no movement, no 
gaiety for mademoiselle ! I myself feel just the same 
as if shut up in a tomb. As to wages, that is an object 
for remaining certainly — that means one’s fortune.” 

“ You get more, much more from him than you did 
from my grandfather,” hazarded Guelda. “ But he 
expects other duties from you ; a certain surveillance 
over myself, for instance.” 

“It is true,” acknowledged Julie, briefly, after a 
minute’s pause, her dark eyes quickly searching the 
other’s face. “ But it is for mademoiselle’s own good 
I undertake the charge. In England young ladies 
are allowed so much freedom — they do not under- 
stand how much better older people can manage their 
affairs for them. For instance — forgive the freedom 
— but the Duke of Islay ” 

“ Ah, yes, the Duke of Islay ! ” interrupted Miss 
Seaton. “ I know what you mean, Julie ; only I will 
never marry him ! But he is a good friend to me, 
indeed. I promise you, Julie, he will pay you more, 
far more, for my sake, than your present master, if 
only you will be on my side and help me. And you 
have always liked me, Julie,” she went on, in eager 
persuasion. “ I have not been a bad mistress to you, 
have I ? ” 

“ But if you absolutely will not marry him, made- 
moiselle, of what use is it that he should pay me ? 
What do you want of me?” asked Julie, with an air 
of utterly failing to comprehend the situation, for all 
her intelligence. 

Guelda took her by the arm, and, lowering her own 
voice, though no one was within earshot as they 
walked in the park, whispered her secret suspicion. 
At that the maid started with a look of amazement. 

“Mademoiselle must be quite mad!” she said, 
firmly. “ It is impossible ! " 


174 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


In vain Guelda argued, tried to prove her case by 
this sign and that; Julie persisted in regarding her 
as mildly demented, and quite kindly pointed out the 
folly of her supposition. 

“ I know all that — all you can say ! ” cried the 
troubled girl, despairingly. “ But still I feel per- 
suaded I am right ! And even if I am wrong, still, 
Julie, will it not be worth your while to join with me ? 
Whatever price you name, I know the duke will 
give, if you will help Bertrand and myself to get away 
rom here.” 

Julie looked at her mistress with a curious smile of 
pity. Long afterwards Guelda remembered, and then 
understood it. 

“ Money is not always enough. One must see 
clearly what will come in the future,” said the abigail 
enigmatically. “ However, mademoiselle, you may 
rest assured I shall be faithful to your interests. 
Pray put this out of your head, I conjure you ! 
Milord is most certainly your uncle ; and, after all, 
what does he want of you but to accept the duke as 
a husband? You cannot marry the other — he is too 
poor.” 

And from this position, Julie was not to be shaken. 

Guelda, after some reflection, supposed the woman 
meant what she said, and that Julie was secretly 
counting on becoming maid to the Duchess of Islay. 
Left without an ally, the young girl fell back on her 
second plan of campaign. 

“ I must leave Sheen and take away Bino with me. 
Each day we stay here will only confirm the public 
in the belief that he really is Lord Lyndon,” she said 
to herself. 

But unless Julie betrayed their late conversation — 
which surely was a treachery she would not be guilty 
of, for Guelda had besought her never to do so, and 
the maid had promised inviolable secrecy — might it 
not be well to delay a few days in order to watch and 
pick up all possible hints for future use ? This was 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 175 

fair enough in the war she had undertaken ; for 
Guelda had brought herself to believe that, far from 
being beholden to her uncle for her daily bread and 
lodging under his roof, this so-called Lord Lyndon 
was a usurper in Sheen Abbey — that he was wasting 
Bertrand’s future fortune, besides doing mischief un- 
told to the delicate body and impressionable mind of 
the little fellow. 

But our fair adventuress found before the next 
afternoon that she was new at this hazardous game 
she had so venturously begun with the rashness of 
youth, and had not allowed sufficiently -for a counter- 
plot to her own plot. For Julie had betrayed her l 

That same night the new lord of Sheen had, as 
was very usual, some of his low-bred companions 
drinking and smoking until late with him. Guelda 
seldom or never dined with him, therefore, now-a-days, 
making the excuse that she did not care for society. 
She took her solitary meal in a small sitting-room 
upstairs, where Julie also sat when it pleased her, for 
none other was allotted to Miss Seaton. Even this 
would have been a delightful liberty to the prisoner 
poor Guelda had almost become, if Bino had been 
allowed to share her frugal supper of what few dishes 
the servants carelessly sent her. 

But no, the boy was, always kept downstairs to 
make sport for the older men at dinner, when his 
quick, monkey-like antics and childish witticisms, 
for he was preternaturally sharp, would set the table 
often in a roar of laughter. 

Guelda put out her light after Julie had helped her 
to undress, but softly got into some of her clothes 
again in the dark. Then, when some little time had 
elapsed, she stole outside in her dressing-gown and 
with noiseless slippers down two long passages to her 
little brother’s room. Twice she went, but each time 
the room was empty — so she could see at once by 
the moonlight falling on the small white bed. 

It was after midnight now. How bad for a child 


176 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


of ten years to be sitting up with those men, who 
were smoking and drinking downstairs ! 

Some one else was sitting up too. Each time that 
Guelda silently passed her maid’s door, she saw a 
faint thread of light by the door-jambs ; the wood- 
work was old and out of repair in that part of the 
house. What could Julie be sitting up for ? 

A third time, nearly an hour later, the girl came 
out again ; but this time she locked the door and 
took the key, moved by some vague instinct of pre- 
caution. 

Ah, thank goodness, Bino was in bed at last ! 
Guelda knelt down by the little recumbent figure, 
trying softly to waken, without alarming the child. 
What was this ? Her fingers caressing his shoulder 
suddenly felt his Eton jacket, his broad collar ; but no 
calling in his ear, no touching or even gentle shaking 
availed to waken him. Groping for a candle and 
matches, Guelda quickly struck a light, and a little 
moan of angry dismay escaped her lips at the sight 
disclosed. 

Bertrand lay as if fallen across his little bed, still 
fully dressed, with his flushed face buried in the quilt, 
while his breathing was strangely heavy. After some 
more efforts Guelda found it was impossible to waken 
him ; she lifted the boy up in her strong young 
arms, placing him straight ; but his heavy head 
dropped, unconscious of her care, upon the pillow 
she so lovingly put under it — his body lay like a log. 

“ They have made him tipsy ! ” thought the indig- 
nant girl, feeling inclined in her disgust to sit down 
and cry; but she covered the little lad up warmly 
instead, and, though some hot drops fell on the quilt, 
she dashed away her tears, and, extinguishing the 
candle, prepared to go back to her room. To do 
this it was necessary to pass the little sitting-room 
used in the daytime by herself and Julie. 

As Guelda, turning a passage corner, approached 
this door, she suddenly saw it was ajar ; there was a 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


177 


light inside and hushed voices fell on her ear. The 
girl’s heart beat violently ; she was so new to feeling 
herself a midnight plotter that her knees quaked, and 
had anyone come out of the room within the next 
six or eight seconds she could not have turned to 
flee. 

Then her presence of mind came back. There was 
no use returning down the passage, for he — this Lord 
Lyndon — slept somewhere there. On the other hand, 
she dared not pass by the open door. But in the 
passage, close by where she stood, was a large, oaken 
chest. Guelda knew it was empty, and softly tried 
to raise the lid. 

The hinges gave a little creak — the voices stopped 
at once. Guelda gave herself up as discovered. Then, 
after a minute’s silence, they went on again. The 
girl stepped cautiously into the chest, and, sinking 
down, contrived to let the lid almost close, yet still 
kept it slightly open, so that disjointed parts of sen- 
tences occasionally reached her anxious, listening 
ears. 

As she guessed, the speakers were her own maid. 
Julie, and this new owner of Sheen. Some indistinct, 
but evidently very angry sentences came from the 
man. Then the woman’s voice cried out audibly, in 
a sharp tone : 

“ You shall not hurt her ! I say you shall not ! 
Leave her to me.” 

“ Curse you — speak lower ! I tell you, unless she 
gives up this confounded idea, I’ll — I’ll do for her ! 
How could she have got it in her head ? ” 

“ What matters that, if I can persuade her out of 
it ? Don’t do anything rash. It would be utter mad- 
ness to ” 

Julie’s voice died away. Some angry, whispered 
discussion followed, during which the speakers seemed 
to have moved further away into the room. Quiver- 
ing with new fear, Guelda, though straining her ears, 
could catch nothing until they at last approached 

12 


178 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

the door. Then she heard the man say, with a low, 
fiendish laugh that made her heart rise with a sensa- 
tion of sickness : 

“ It would be easy enough to get two doctors’ 
certificates that she is off her head, and then to clap 
the girl into a private asylum. The sporting little 
chap would do it for one, and Lady Ermyntrude 
Gamble will back me up — she pities my trouble with 
the girl already, and thinks her mad from ‘ unre- 
quited love ! ’ Ha, ha ! She is mad to cross me as 
she is doing ! ” 

“ It is cruel ! shameful ! I regret having ever 
promised to help you in such an affair.” 

“ Too late for that now. Don’t be an idiot, Julie ! 
You have got to do what I tell you — you know that 
well enough.” 

“Yes, you are a hard enough master now,” said 
the woman, with a low, bitter laugh. “You seem to 
forget these last days that existence is not very 
amusing to me here, whatever it may be to you. 
You pretend to care for me ; but when do I ever see 
you ? Always, always with these idle, good-for- 
nothing friends ! Ciel ! — a pretty lord you are. Do 
you think, then, I am an angel to bear it?” 

“ Have patience — have a little patience, Julie ! A 
man in my position cannot afford to give rise to 
scandal and gossip ” 

Evidently his lordship had drawn Julie further 
back into the room and was coaxing her into a 
better humour, for the trembling listener could not 
catch any more of their whispered conversation. 
But, as both came out into the passage presently, 
Julie said, in apparently restored good temper : 

“ Cest bien ! I trust you ! And you promise not 
to hurt the girl ? ” 

“Of course not. But a little bread-and-water 
discipline will not harm her — that’s all.” 

Guelda, supporting the lid of the chest with her 
fingers, heard this much; then Julie’s door softly 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


179 


closed. She was preparing to creep out after a few 
minutes when, to her horror, a candle flashed past 
her hiding-place. Lord Lyndon was stealthily creep- 
ing down the passage again to her own — Guelda’s — 
door. Trembling, the girl, though cramped by lying 
on her side, managed to raise the chest-lid again suffi- 
ciently to peer out with difficulty. 

Her door was at the further end of the corridor. 
She saw the figure of her pseudo-uncle stoop and 
listen at the key-hole, then come away with an air of 
irresolution. Again he turned back two steps with a 
stealthy tread, listened once more with a look of 
doubt, as if suspicious that the occupant of the room 
was not within. Then, apparently unable to satisfy 
himself, he shook his clenched fist silently at the door. 
The unwilling eavesdropper shuddered at the revenge- 
ful attitude, then watched from her loophole the 
receding figure disappear down the passage. 

It was only after a considerable time of waiting 
that Guelda’s white-gowned form cautiously emerged 
from her hiding-place, fled to her own room, and 
unlocked and relocked her door. Then at last her 
knees quaked under her ; feeling safe, she dared give 
way to her natural fears. 

“ I knew it — I knew he was a villain ! ” she said to 
herself. “ If he really is Robert Seaton, why should 
he fear exposure ? ” 


12 


180 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

“Mademoiselle looks very pale,” remarked Julie, 
next morning, after her young lady’s midnight ad- 
venture. 

The latter explained that she had been frightened ; 
she had imagined hearing steps outside her door. 
“ And I sleep very lightly,” she added. 

This little stratagem, by which the poor girl hoped 
to raise Julie’s sympathy, succeeded. The latter 
started slightly, then said in an altered voice, that 
seemed striving to be careless : 

“ It is a pity to lose one’s rest with such fancies. 
Still, if mademoiselle chooses to sleep in the inner 
room ” — this was a small dressing-room with no 
passage door — “ I do not mind occupying this one 
just to give her confidence.” 

“ If my uncle has no objection to your using my 
room, I shall be very glad,” responded Guelda, with 
a sinking heart, for she saw that Julie was, if possible, 
more frightened than herself on hearing of the steps. 

“O, objection!” said the waiting- woman, with a 
hard look, tossing her head. “ Milord has no right to 
interfere when your health is concerned, and so I 
shall tell him.” 

Evidently Julie was a determined woman, and 
meant to keep her word. Her mistress expressed 
her gratitude as warmly as she dared, feeling with a 
sort of wondering calm that perhaps her liberty, even 
her life, depended on the liking shown her and the 
protection extended by her own maid. 

“ I congratulate mademoiselle on using the words 
‘ her uncle ’ again,” the latter added with a keen look 
presently. “ If you could put this mad idea out of 
your head it would be much better for yourself.” 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


181 


A sudden chance of redeeming her old position of 
comparative safety loomed before the prisoner. Bend- 
ing her head, while a warm flush burned her cheeks, 
she humbly replied : 

“ I believe you are right, Julie.” It seemed so like 
a fib she was well-nigh ashamed of herself. 

“ What ? Then you have thought over my ad- 
vice ? ” cried Julie, with a surprised, almost joyful 
glance. 

“Of course I have thought over it! It was too 
serious a matter not to consider all that was to be 
said.” 

“ And you give up all your foolish ideas, then ? ” 

“ I think that perhaps, as you said, I was a little 
excited when I spoke to you about it,” was the 
only reply Guelda could bring herself to frame. 
Her pride revolted from what would have been a 
direct lie ; she was so brave that cowardice appeared 
worse humiliation than suffering. Julie seemed some- 
what dissatisfied ; for once her astuteness was at 
fault, but she maintained silence. 

And now our heroine nerved herself to go down- 
stairs and face a great ordeal. She always found 
herself alone at breakfast-time ; an hour or so later 
Bino would appear — a sleepy and lazy little urchin, 
with his elf-locks only half-brushed, while his dress- 
ing hardly merited the term. 

To all sisterly expostulation he used to answer, in 
half-defiant apology, “ I’m not as late as my uncle.” 
Indeed, Guelda suspected him lately of waiting about 
for Uncle Robert, so as to be guarded from a scold- 
ing by his protector. 

On this morning Guelda stayed, as always, to pour 
out their tea, which she had kept hot ; this tea- 
making being a duty she felt bound to perform in 
courtesy. Otherwise she would perhaps hardly ever 
see during the day the master of Sheen, whose 
guest she was supposed to be. Instead of leaving the 
man and boy to finish their meal together, as usual, 


182 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

this morning Guelda lingered, her courage seeming to 
trickle away the longer she stayed, requiring much 
inward effort to bring it back again. 

“ Bino looks very tired this morning — don’t you 
think so, Uncle Robert? I am afraid he must have 
sat up rather late,” she hazarded presently, making 
the first plunge 

“ What is that to you ? ” was the rude reply, while 
Lord Lyndon’s pale face turned upon her with a 
sinister expression and sidelong glance. 

“ It is a great deal, as I am his sister; and you know 
I am really responsible for his health and welfare, in 
spite of all your kindness.” 

This was said with a light air of cheerfulness far 
from being felt by the frightened speaker. 

“You leave the boy to me. I am fond of Bertrand 
— eh, old chap ? — and I like him to have his pleasures, 
and so he shall. You are always grumbling at him.” 

“ O, come, I say, that is too hard on her, poor girl ! 
No, no ! ” put in the little boy, with a half-patronising, 
rather anxiously-affectionate look towards his sister 
that would have been amusing had it not been pitiful. 
Plainly he agreed in thinking her foolish, but still he 
was fond of her. 

She herself, however, broke in, trembling' a little, 
and with much emotion. 

“You may be fond of Bino,” she said, “ I am not 
going to dispute that ; but indeed it is a hurtful fond- 
ness. You give him little cigarettes constantly; but, 
no matter how small, they are not fit for a child of his 
age to smoke ; and then you let him drink wine after 
dinner when he sits up with you.” The troubled 
young sister dared not add what she also feared, that 
this man was teaching the boy bad language. “ Pray 
forgive me,” added poor Guelda, trying to command 
herself and force a conciliatory, quivering smile ; “ but 
you see, since he was a baby, I have had charge of 
Bino. He knows that — I brought him up.” 

“Don’t call me by that baby name any longer,” 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 183 

broke in the boy with vexation. “ My uncle never 
does ; he knows what a fellow likes.” 

“ Look here, my dear Guelda,” said Uncle Robert’s 
voice, speaking with a treacherous quietness, “you 
want to look after Bertrand yourself, don’t you ? 
Perhaps to take him away from me. Is that it?” 

“ Yes,” uttered Guelda eagerly, thinking fearlessness 
might be best ; “ I can make a home for both him and 
me, and support us both. It is bad for Bertrand to 
grow up dependent on your bounty ; and, however 
generous you are to him, surely he will not wish to 
live always at your expense ? I think those who can 
work and have no money ought to work — don’t you ? 
And surely we must cost you a great deal.” 

She hoped to touch the man’s love of money there, 
but Uncle Robert only replied, with a low, mocking 
laugh : “ And so you want to go ; but you don’t take 

Bertrand away to starve with my consent. I can’t 
help it if you go to the workhouse or a lunatic 
asylum ; but if you think he’ll go with you of his own 
free will — why, ask him.” 

Guelda slightly shivered at the threat of the asylum. 
But, turning to Bertrand, she besought the boy, with 
all her great love shining in her eyes ; appealed to his 
pride, his affection for her ; surely he had trusted in 
her so* long, he would now believe she knew what was 
right for him ! He could not desert her — they had 
never been parted before. 

The boy sat, pale, with his black eyes glowing, 
occasionally throwing an appealing glance as if for 
protection against Guelda towards his uncle, who 
answered with an “ I told you so, my boy ! ” Then at 
last with quivering lips, his mind torn by conflicting 
feelings, but selfishness being uppermost, the little lad 
cried out : 

“ I won’t go, I won’t ! My uncle is right — you must 
be a little cracked, Guelda. Why should I leave my 
pony and everything here and go to lessons and 
be — be starved with you ? I won’t ! ” His voice 


184 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


broke down in a dry sob or two, moved by thoughts 
of the pleasures he might be called on to forego. 
Guelda threw herself on one knee beside him, putting 
her arms round him in a burst of loving emotion, en- 
treaty and protection. The boy passionately pushed her 
off and freed himself. “ I won’t go. There — I won’t ! ” 

He ended his sentence with something like a curse 
at her. Guelda rose, very white. She somehow 
reached her room, touching the walls for support now 
and then, and, when once there, fainted for the first 
time in her life. 

Almost a month later; it was a dark November 
night. Alone, affrighted, and already half exhausted, 
though she had only left Sheen Abbey five miles 
behind her, Guelda Seaton was walking hastily, nearly 
running at times, along a miry way ; while occasional 
gusts of rain stung her face and soaked her garments 
that a bitter wind seemed to pierce through, chilling 
her bones. Every now and then she glanced fearfully 
over her shoulder, and at the least noise crouched in 
the blackness of the wintry night. A prisoner for the 
past month, growing weak from want of exercise and 
air, hourly trembling lest every noise on the stairs 
should be the doctor’s footsteps, whom she too well 
dreaded might be induced to declare her suffering 
from delusions, Guelda had escaped at last ! Before 
flying she had in vain and painfully implored freedom 
from her gaoler, but had only overstrung thereby her 
already almost maddened nerves and roused his 
suspicions. Her flight seemed a terrible dream. Was 
she really out here ? Her heart beat, her breath 
quickened as she thought of it. Heavens, was that 
a horse’s gallop behind her, nearer — nearer ? The 
moon shone fitfully out ; her dark figure would be 
seen flying up the straight road. Giving herself up 
utterly for lost, Guelda sank down in a dark heap 
under the hedge. She could not escape, and — yes, it 
was his grey horse — she recognized the rider, as she 
feared, her gaoler, her enemy, “ U ncle Robert.” 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


185 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

UNDER the hedge poor Guelda passed five minutes of 
such anguish of dread as she never afterwards forgot. 
All the energies of her mind and body were paralysed ; 
she clenched her hands, straining her muscles con- 
vulsively, while her eyes started forward. Like vivid 
pictures, the horrors she had read and heard of sane 
people confined by cupidity or revenge on the part of 
their relatives in private lunatic asylums, passed 
before her mental vision. She seemed to see herself 
harassed by suspicions, her entreaties and remon- 
strances all regarded as proofs of insanity, until, 
goaded to despair, some action of anger or attempted 
escape brought on horrors of ill-usage at which her 
soul already sickened and shrank. Nearer, nearer, 
came the horse. A cold sweat broke out on the girl’s 
face, a darkness passed before her eyes 

When she came to herself all was really dark 
around her. The moon was hidden under a bank of 
clouds. On the road in front the grey horse had 
passed by, its rider pulling up into a trot with a care- 
less word or two. Then the man’s well-known voice 
broke with a rollicking sound into some lines of a low 
music-hall song. 

G-uelda had only lost consciousness for a brief few 
seconds, and meanwhile came deliverance. Her pur- 
suer had not seen her figure in the blessed darkness. 
Nay, he was not even on her track, or he would not 
be trotting so leisurely nor singing with such jovial 
vulgarity. But where then was he going at this un- 
usual hour ? The answer soon came. Lyndon turned 
at some cross-roads sharply up a by-lane. There was 
no one living beyond there whom he could possibly 


186 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


be going to see, excepting his boon companion, the 
sporting doctor. 

A little sound passed the girl’s lips, but it was an 
inspiration of breath as she braced all her muscles, 
not a weak outcry. She would need all her strength 
to escape, all the fleetness of foot and untiring 
energy that had been the dowry of her old free forest 
life ; but she might do it. This midnight ride meant 
mischief — the doctors were being summoned in good 
earnest now. But they would not disturb her sup- 
posed rest till morning, and, meanwhile, if she could 
but catch the night train at the town, still five miles 
distant, dawn would see her safe in London. 

Flying on, her tired muscles given fresh energy by 
the sharpened spur of her fears, poor Guelda seemed 
to see the dark blurred outlines of trees, hills, hedges, 
go by as in a nightmare. With short chest-sobs of 
exhaustion she hurried on — still, still on. At last the 
station-lights gleamed across a small flat plain below 
her. The last mile of level roadside was the weariest 
of all. The girl’s brave spirit was, as it were, dragging 
on the lagging, jaded body that hampered it ; despite 
her efforts, her feet seemed to crawl into the station. 
No train was there, no distant whistle to be heard. A 
horrible dread overpowered her that she was too late, 
and by morning there would be messengers sent after 
her in every direction. 

“ Please, when does the London train 

“Due in ten minutes,” grumbled a porter, taking a 
sleepy survey of the rain-draggled, muddy-booted 
woman’s figure he saw huddled in a loose dark 
cloak. 

Thank Heaven ! Guelda sank in a corner out of 
sight, feeling heavy as lead. In ten minutes she had 
got into a third-class compartment. By daylight the 
train steamed into London, and the fugitive was safe 
for the present — a frail unit merged in that great 
crowd. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


187 


“ The duke is not in town. His grace is still 
yachting, and is believed to be cruising in the 
Mediterranean.” So answered a pompous, idle 
footman to Guelda’s timid and tired interroga- 
tions. 

The man had stared superciliously at first at her 
dress, that still showed traces of last night’s rain and 
mud, although she had rested for some time and 
tried to repair the disorder of the journey after 
breakfast at a cheap-looking restaurant. Recognising 
Miss Seaton with inward surprise, the servant how- 
ever became more civil, though she guessed with 
wounded quickness that he was rather impertinently 
criticising her changed appearance and pale weary 
face. 

“ Can you give me Lady Grizel’s address ? ” asked 
Guelda. 

The important functionary was sorry to say that 
was impossible. 

“ Her ladyship hasn’t given no address. There’s a 
pile of letters waiting for her already. No one can 
say when she will be pleased to return from the Home 
where she is understood to be staying.” 

“And the duke? Could you not say where a 
letter would reach him ? ” 

A covert smile flickered around Jeames’s lips. He 
would inquire. Presently he returned with two other 
lounging gentlemen, his fellows, who, after examining 
the visitor with sidelong looks of curiosity — for which 
purpose they had apparently been summoned — held 
a short consultation. The two second confirmed the 
first footman’s impression that orders had been re- 
ceived to forward his grace’s letters to Genoa. 

Feeling convinced that the man had only delayed 
this information in order to give the other servants 
an opportunity of wondering at the change in the 
brilliant beauty before whom they had bowed de- 
ferentially as their future mistress, Guelda walked 
away with her head high, but a swelling heart 


188 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“ It is easy to see that Islay and Grizel are not 
expected home. How quickly a great household 
grows insolent in the master’s absence ! ” she said to 
herself, thinking how angry, simple honest Islay 
would be, and Airlie too, who was known to be as 
chivalrous in manner to an old apple-woman as to a 
princess, could either know how she was slighted by 
these lackeys. 

Alone in London, without luggage, Guelda Seaton 
found it a somewhat difficult and painful task to find 
a lodging. She had disposed easily, probably at a 
considerable loss, of some of the small articles of 
jewellery she had managed to secrete from Julie’s 
prying eyes and carry away with her. But, after 
being scrutinised at many doors over which the word 
“ Apartments ” hung, in the quiet semi-genteel streets 
to which her steps instinctively turned, and finding 
herself always refused with cold and dubious looks, 
poor Guelda felt on the verge of breaking down into 
bitter weeping — she was so tired after her flight and 
want of sleep — so disappointed. 

" I must not give way ; that would be worst of all,” 
she thought to herself, struggling to force back the 
tears in her big brown eyes, whose lustre was still un- 
dimmed after all her fatigues and fears, though there 
were dark circles round them. Even as she made the 
effort, the mistress of the last lodgings, where she still 
stood on the threshold, humiliated and perplexed, 
gave her a clue to what was amiss in her appear- 
ance. 

“You may be quite respectable, my dear. I 
wouldn’t say that you look otherwise,” said the 
woman, who seemed a good-natured soul, eyeing 
Guelda, with pitying doubt. “But the truth is, 
you’re very handsome to be coming alone like this. 
And then your dress is rather stylish, too — and 
having no luggage ! I’ve been always so particular 
as to who I took in.” 

Rebuffed, and almost ashamed, the late heiress and 


THE FREAKS OP LADY FORTUNE. 


189 


beauty walked diffidently away ; but now she knew 
what she must do. 

Having taken off, on reaching London, the long 
dark cloak she had worn by way of disguise the 
night before, Guelda’s dress although what she 
thought simple morning attire, had a fashionable 
cut that on her exquisite figure excited remark. 
Going straightway to one of those large shops where 
a whole outfit can be provided in half-an-hour, Miss 
« Seaton’s appearance was soon considerably changed. 
A plain hat, and thick veil, a ready-made, somewhat 
dowdy gown, that did not fit certainly — but, as 
Guelda remarked to the shop-woman, she could alter 
it herself — some other small changes of attire soon 
gave her the outward appearance of a “ young 
person in humble circumstances.” 

Making some excuse for keeping on these new 
clothes, Guelda next had her former ones packed in 
a small trunk, likewise bought on the premises, 
together with some other necessaries of toilet. Then 
taking her box on a cab, this innocent adventuress, 
who began to feel as if she was a person of a deeply 
scheming turn of mind, at last found herself installed 
in a cheap back bedroom of modest and dingy but 
respectable appearance. 

The next thing to do was to write to Islay. 
Guelda, tired though she was, spend that evening 
composing her letter. Several times she tore up 
close-written pages, thinking, “ Unless I see him and 
explain things slowly, so that he can enter by degrees 
into my suspicions of this uncle of mine, he will think 
me crazy too.” At last she only wrote a brief note, 
reminding Islay of his promise to help her as a 
brother, and imploring its fulfilment When he re- 
turned. She was in great trouble. There was no 
other friend to whom she could turn for aid. 

Then the girl stole outside and posted the letter, 
lest its address should excite curiosity in her 
lodgings. 


190 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER XXV. 

It was well for Guelda that she had taken the pre- 
caution of buying new clothes. , 

As she sat down one evening to her humble tea, 
her landlady paused after setting down the tray she 
had just carried upstairs, and said, with condescending 
pity : 

“ It’s very lonely for you up here. I would not be 
a governess myself for any wages. Have you got a 
place yet ? ” 

“ Not yet,” answered Guelda, taking a cheerful air ; 
“but I hope soon to hear of something. I have 
some kind friends who will soon be coming back to 
town, and they will help me.” 

“Friends — have you? Well, I’m glad to hear it. 
Then you are not the young woman who has run 
away from home, and is advertised for as missing. 
Me and my husband was just speaking of it to each 
other this morning ; for you have a dress rather like 
hers that’s described. That is it hanging up behind 
the door there.” 

And the landlady, a snuffy-looking woman, but 
hungry-eyed, gazed at the black dress in question, 
hanging her head, with its side-curls kept in place by 
two combs, scrutinisingly awry. 

“ What can you mean ? ” smiled her lodger, trying 
to look unconcerned, though inwardly she was sick 
at heart. 

“ Here is the paper — the advertisement has been in 
these two days — would you like to see it ? ” producing 
a greasy Standard from her apron-pocket, and adding 
with a harsh laugh, “ I would have taken the girl to 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 191 

be you and not said a word about it till we had com- 
municated with whoever has put in this advertisement, 
only that it says ‘lately supposed of unsound intellect/ 
and you are not that to all appearances.” 

“ I should hope not,” said the secretly-terrified girl, 
echoing the laugh mechanically, as she read the 
description. 

Yes, her whole attire, just as she had fled, was 
described exactly. A large reward was offered for 
any information. Only the suggestion of unsound 
intellect had saved her ; his lordship had overshot 
the mark this time. 

She was safe for the present, but perhaps not for 
to-morrow or the next day. Guelda dreaded to leave 
her room, lest the prying curiosity of this mistress of 
the house should begin a search in her absence. 
True, her black gown had escaped being identified ; 
but her hat that lay in her little trunk there, her 
other articles of attire all marked “ G.S,” had been 
accurately advertised, and lock and key would not 
long hinder so shrewd-minded a landlady. 

Even the bravest of women is prone to exaggerate 
unknown dangers. This lonely young creature had 
no idea what power, if any, her supposed uncle might 
have over her person. Yet if he followed her, claimed 
her by the right of being her nearest relative, and 
carried out his fiendish plan of having her declared 
of unsound mind, oh, who would protect her — who 
would believe her? And, were the doctors to ask 
questions about her imputed hallucination not even 
to save her freedom, surely, ought she to perhaps 
endanger her little brother’s chance of inheritance by 
acknowledging this so-called Robert, Lord Lyndon ? 
What was to be done ? Guelda bent over her un- 
tasted tea in thought some time ; then she made up 
her mind. 

That night she sat up late till her one poor candle 
had guttered down to its socket. She was busy 
unpicking the trimming of her hat and dress, altering 


192 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

them unrecognisably, as she hoped, feeling like a 
hunted hare. 

The next day she invented the pretext of a likely 
situation in a distant neighbourhood as governess, 
and changed her lodgings, forfeiting her week’s rent 
in default of notice. 

“ It is better than being trapped and caged, shut up 
with afflicted beings whose society may make me as 
unhappy as themselves,” she thought ; and, strong as 
she was, her limbs trembled at the suggestion. 

Truly, if Islay knew, or even Grizel, or, most of 
all, Ronald, they would save her. But they might 
not know ; she would be debarred all communication 
with the outer world. 

Even at this eleventh hour, Guelda could have 
written to Airlie, She knew that nothing would keep 
him from her side if she called upon his aid. But 
her love as well as her pride was so strong that, 
unless all else failed, she could not bring herself to do 
so. 

“ It would be to his injury,” she said in her heart, 
choking down a dry sob. 

November was fast merging into December, and 
London was plunged in its season of fogs. One day, 
when, since morning, waves of yellow darkness had 
enwrapped the metropolis, only slightly varying in 
density, poor Guelda had sat for hours with aching 
sight, vainly trying to embroider a small piece of 
work that later she would perhaps as vainly try to 
sell. 

“ It is no use,” she said aloud, at last to herself, 
pushing back the hair from her hot, weary brow 
“ Perhaps I am going foolishly to work by saving 
every farthing of candle- light and food in this way. 
Only a few shillings left in the purse ! Well, if one 
plays for high stakes, one must risk more than 
counters, and if I lose my health how can I help 
Bertrand or myself, or any one. It must go.” 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 193 

Feeling tired, almost ill, the young girl rose, and 
with very reluctant, lingering hands drew a morocco 
case out of her box and opened it. A necklace of 
splendid pearls, from which hung a diamond pendant 
of great lustre, lay within on the satin lining. It was 
the famous necklace that had belonged to Guelda’s 
grandmother, the only dowry the dead Lord Lyndon 
had, after all, been able to give his beloved grand- 
daughter. If Robert, the present Lord Lyndon, 
could have laid claim to the gift, he assuredly would 
have done so ; he had indeed sounded the family 
lawyer on the subject, but had been met with utter 
discouragement. On these pearls of price Guelda 
now relied for her future maintenance. 

Dressing herself to go out, the girl was soon in the 
street, where she seemed to have stepped into a sea of 
thick, poisonous vapour. At first she made her way 
well enough through the quieter streets in her own 
neighbourhood, but soon, as she struggled to reach 
Piccadilly, matters grew worse. The damp air pene- 
trated through her clothes, chilling and depressing in 
its effects. It was choking to breathe this smoke- 
laden fog, that made Guelda’s throat and lungs 
painfully sore as she laboured along, and brought 
smarting tears to her eyes. 

Pale carriage lamps could be descried creeping 
cautiously down what was presumably the roadway, 
and voices shouted loudly in warning as the drivers 
passed each other. 

The lonely young creature heartily wished herself 
home, yet did not like to turn back, having come so 
far, the danger being equal either way. She stood a 
moment hesitating beside each mournfully dim lamp- 
post, looking at the next, that seemed like a dull 
marsh fire far off, then again struggled on. At the 
crossings, men with great flaring torches rushed to 
convoy her over. She had to avoid and repulse them 
— she had no money. Many stared her in the face, 
though she was thickly-veiled, and frightened her, 

13 


194 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

little timid as she was. But the men had such evil 
faces ; all the roughs of London seemed abroad in 
search of a job that night. 

At last Guelda became aware that two slouching 
creatures in especial seemed to single hor out, and 
were dodging her footsteps. Terror seized her, not 
for herself, but for the pearls she was carrying. 
Hastily thrusting the morocco case into the bosom of 
her dress, she darted along, knowing that if robbed of 
her sole treasure she would be poor indeed. Looking 
over her shoulder, she saw the shadows in pursuit. 

In a moment Guelda knew matters were serious ; 
without hesitation she dashed across the street, felt 
the shaft of a crawling hansom graze her shoulder, 
was shrieked at, shouted at, but dived between other 
vehicles somehow. 

A dark side-street opened close by, an area-gate 
stood ajar, leading to the kitchen of some private 
bouse. On an impulse the girl hurried down the 
area-steps and remained below, flattened against the 
wall, resolved to ring for help if further molested. 

Steps came overhead and halted ; she heard her 
two ruffians holding a hoarse altercation together in 
whispers. The one averred she was certain to have 
gone this way, and the other grumbled it was all 
along a mistake, and just like the stupidity of his 
‘ blooming mate ’ ; the girl was not the right one 
and not worth following. Nevertheless, as both 
believed she had gone ahead up this side street, the 
one who counselled pursuit prevailed, and they 
shambled on. 

As their footsteps died away, Guelda peered after 
them from her hiding-place ; then she fled panting 
out into the greater safety of Piccadilly’s traffic, how- 
ever lessened that night. On and on into Bond Street, 
where she entered the shop of a well-known jeweller ; 
her cheeks were flushed and her breath came in little 
quick gasps that caused the gravely-respectable 
assistant to look surprised as she sank on a chair. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


195 


There was only one other customer in the shop— a 
gentleman. By new-learnt caution Guelda had 
avoided the stranger, whose back she caught sight of 
on entering. She shrank from possibly meeting with 
some former acquaintance, perhaps a partner at one 
of her many last season’s balls, to whom she could not 
tell her history; but who might spread abroad the 
fact of meeting Miss Seaton under such strange 
circumstances, and so set her uncle Robert on her 
track. Lowering her voice therefore, and turning 
away her head from chance scrutiny, Guelda mur- 
mured : 

“ I have brought you some pearls to look at, please. 
Could you tell me their value ? ” 

The assistant critically gazed at the necklace, and 
with a doubtful side-look measuring Guelda’s evi- 
dently graceful figure, but common hat, thick veil and 
old waterproof, civilly asked if she purposed having 
the necklace altered, or set to rights.” 

“ No — no ; I wish to sell it ! ” 

The young man hemmed and looked still more 
dubious ; then he said it would be necessary to con- 
sult his employer, who was engaged with the gentle- 
man opposite. 

Presently he went across, and after deferentially 
waiting some time, managed to whisper to the great 
jeweller. He was severely frowned on for his pains ; 
the other customer was a person of high rank, and 
such an interruption was most ill-timed. 

Nevertheless, the customer was evidently of a good- 
humoured disposition, for, overhearing the assistant’s 
murmur of apology : “ Almost the finest pearls I ever 
saw in my life, sir, or I would not have ventured — 
lady appears poor — anxious to sell them,” he broke 
in. 

“ Don’t mind me, Mr. Benjamin, if you want to 
look at anything ; and don’t keep a lady — any 
woman — waiting for me. If it is anything worth 
seeing, I should not mind having a look at it myself,” 

13 * 


196 


THE FHEAKS OF LADY FOKTUNE. 


“ It is a very fine string of pearls and a beautiful 
old diamond locket, your grace,” answered Mr. 
Benjamin, in a discreet whisper of deference, mingled 
with caution, after having examined the necklace 
with raised eyebrows. “ Whoever wants to sell these 
should be a person of title, or have come by them in 
some strange manner.” 

“ Let me see it,” desired Islay, for he it was. 

Next moment he started, and, pointing at some 
faded gilt letters stamped on the cover, uttered aloud : 

“ Gnelda ! ” 

Poor Guelda had been waiting with sinking heart in 
the interior of the shop. The minutes that elapsed, 
the murmured colloquy had filled her with vague 
alarms ; her story might be disbelieved, even the 
pearls might be kept, pending an explanation of how 
she came by them. What had she to prove herself 
really Guelda Seaton? And, if they should write 
to Lord Lyndon for confirmation, she was lost ! The 
girl knew so little of life, except from her childhood’s 
experiences, that she believed might, as often as not, 
took the place of right ; and most things were 
possible to the strong. 

But at that voice, and the sound of her own name, 
she started wildly. At the same moment Islay 
looked round ; the next he was at her side and, 
grasping her hands with an almost painful pressure, 
that yet brought the blood gladly mantling to 
Guelda’s cheeks and a late-lacked lustre to her eyes, 
he was exclaiming in a suppressed voice of bewil- 
derment, great surprise, and sympathy : 

“You ! is this really you ? 'What has happened ? 
Great Heavens, how pale you look, and — and — 
changed. I’ve been nearly off my head, hoping to 
meet you for the last I don’t know how long ! ” 

“ Did you got my letter at Genoa ? ” asked Guelda, 
hardly knowing whether to laugh or cry. 

. “ Of course I did ! That brought me back. I 
jumped iqtQ the express train, left the yacht hehind s 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 197 

and came straight to England ; but I could not find 
you.’' 

“ Did you not write to the address I gave you ? 
The woman of my lodgings promised to forward any 
letters. I had to move elsewhere.” 

“ I did write, and waited in vain ; and then I wrote 
ever so often,” said Islay, eagerly. “ You had said in 
your postscript, ‘ Don’t come, but write,’ so I did not 
like to disobey you.” 

“ There was no place — I could not well receive you 
there,” murmured Guelda, embarrassed, thinking of 
her mean attic under the roof. 

“ Well, I could stand it no longer, so I went straight 
to the house. The landlady was a fiend ; I could 
have choked that woman, with her corkscrew curls 
and her ferret eyes. She would not tell me where 
you were, but asked as many questions as a detective. 
So I offered her a sovereign to give me your address 
and end the matter, when, to my surprise, she turned 
upon me like a virago, with no end of abuse for 
supposing she would be satisfied with that, or any- 
thing less than her full share of some reward.” 

“ What ? ” exclaimed Guelda, suddenly trembling 

“ It’s just as I tell you,” went on the unsuspecting 
Islay, opening his honest grey eyes in search of com- 
prehension. “ Of course I rose in my price, but when 
she asked me had I put some advertisement in the 
papers, and I assured her on my honour I had not, 
she fairly drove me out of the house in a storm of 
passion. She called me a sneak, and said she would 
go halves with no one. At last I was actually driven 
off the field, and could only go to Scotland Yard and 
see there if they could help me. But why — what is 
the matter ? ” 

For Guelda had turned very white, and was looking 
at him strangely. 

“When did this interview happen?” she asked, in 
a breathless voice. 

The jeweller and his man had discreetly withdrawn 


198 


THE FEEAKS OF LADY FOETUNE. 


themselves out of hearing to the further end of the 
great shop, on seeing that the Duke of Islay seemed 
so deeply interested in his conversation with this 
veiled, mysterious lady. These two were practically 
alone, among the mirrors and cases of jewels that 
gleamed and flashed with soft radiance around. 

“ When did it happen ? Why, a fortnight ago ! 
At least, now I come to think of it, perhaps only a 
week — a week exactly. But the time has seemed to 
go so slowly.” 

“ A week,” repeated Guelda, mechanically, calcu- 
lating rapidly in her own mind. (“ That woman 
would write perhaps about the advertisement, for her 
suspicions were evidently roused when Islay offered 
the money, or else she had thought over it and 
regretted letting me escape. Her letter may have 
been delayed being forwarded, but still he must know 
by now that I am in London. At this very moment, 
they — he and his doctors — may be awaiting me at 
the lodgings. Those were his men who followed 
me.”) Clasping and unclasping her fingers in an 
anguish of trouble, Guelda exclaimed aloud, at last, 
reverting to her first thought: “A week ago? O, 
what shall I do — what shall I do ? He is certain to 
find me now. He is looking for me.” 

“ He — who ? Tell me, in Heaven’s name, what 
you are afraid of?” entreated Islay, who was watch- 
ing her in growing perplexity and apprehension. 

His fears were not allayed by Guelda’s hastily- 
uttered, almost incoherently, wild words : 

“ I am afraid of this man — my new uncle, as he 
calls himself. He is persecuting me — I am in hiding 
from him. O, Islay, you are my only friend left — 
my only hope ! Save me from him — take me away 
— take me anywhere safe, quite safe, till I can tell 
you all about it. You know that I am not mad. 
You believe that, don’t you? — but he says I am 
crazed. He wants to drag me into a private lunatic- 
asylum, and has offered a reward for me as missing. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


199 


I dare not go back to-night They may find me: 
they are searching now, I know ! O, what shall I 
do?” 

“ Trust yourself to me — I will take care that no 
one shall harm you,” exclaimed Islay hotly, his honest 
face flushing. 

For a moment, in his bewilderment, he was half 
disposed to believe the poor girl was suffering from 
some hallucination — some over-excitement or disorder 
of the brain. 

“ What shall I do ? I must tell you all the story,” 
she kept blankly repeating. 

“ Come with me — my brougham is waiting,” uttered 
Islay, impulsively. “Your pearls — Benjamin shall 
keep them safely till you tell him what you wish done 
about them.” 

And giving his directions with an air of imperious 
command very different to his accustomed simple 
manner, Islay hurried Guelda outside into his carriage. 
Then, as the servant stood waiting for directions 
where his master wished to be driven, the duke 
hesitated an instant, the next he called out : 

“Home.” 


200 


THE FEEAKS OF LADY FOETUNE. 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

GUELDA felt in a dream as she sat in Islay’s carriage 
beside him, and as she found herself once more 
entering Islay House in his company. 

The powdered lackeys no doubt looked with still 
livelier surprise this time at her as she entered, more 
shabbily dressed than even on her last visit, though 
now by their master’s side ; but in the duke’s presence 
their glances were obsequiously lowered. 

Islay led Guelda to his own sitting-room — a most 
luxurious, orientally-furnished smoking sanctum. 
Guelda, looking round, received an impression that 
here comfort and luxury reigned supreme. Deep 
divans round the walls, well-filled bookcases, tables 
strewn with a delightful litter of newest works and 
pamphlets, open cigar-boxes, newspapers, and liqueur- 
stands, met her eyes on all sides. 

“ Forgive my bringing you here ; but this is the 
only room I have been sitting in since Grizel went 
away. I don’t know if the others are even open or 
not,” said Islay, looking round apologetically with a 
disconsolate air. “If only Grizel were here ! But 
she thinks she has found her mission in life, so one 
can say nothing against it.” 

He ended with an abrupt sigh ; then, changing his 
tone to one of matter-of-fact care for his guest’s wants, 
he continued : 

“Have you had any food lately? You look quite 
exhausted. What o’clock do you dine ? ” 

Guelda faintly smiled at the idea of her ever dining 
lately, in his acceptation of the term. 

“ I generally have something to eat at this hour,” 
she said ; “ but never mind food, now ! Please let me 
tell you—*” 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


201 


“ I will do anything and everything you wish — that 
is, if I possess the power or means to do so,” inter- 
rupted her host. “ All I ask is, that you should let 
me set about your business in my own way. The 
first thing for you to do now is for you to eat and 
drink ; no one can fight against nature, I believe, 
for long ; better give in to her to start with.” 

He rang the bell, and gave orders to the servant 
who appeared ; then he desired the housekeeper to 
be sent to him. 

“ I am going to put you under her charge,” he said, 
in a brotherly fashion to his guest, who sat by be- 
wildered. “ As Grizel is not here, she must take care 
of you while you stay here. What do I mean ? Why, 
as you can’t go back to your lodgings, you must of 
course be protected by your friends. Lord Lyndon 
will hardly take you out of my house.” Islay drew 
himself up with a pride that was very rare in him ; 
then he went on hurriedly — “As to me, I am leaving 
this for some rooms I have at — at Brighton, in an 
hour or so, if you will first allow me the pleasure of 
dining with you and hearing all you have to tell me. 
But I shall come and see you to-morrow at any hour 
you please to receive me.” 

“ I am turning you out of your own house. Ah, 
Iblay, that is it ! ” exclaimed Guelda, in self-reproach 
mingled with hesitation. “You are too good; but, I 
fear I ought not ” 

“ Where else can you go to ? If you look on me 
and on Grizel as your brother and sister, as we hope 
you do, this is your natural home till you — till you 
have one of your own,” he answered, with an obstinate 
simplicity of tone. 

His voice died away at the last words, however, 
with embarrassment. Plainly he did not quite know 
what were the terms on which Ronald Airlie and 
Guelda stood as regarded each other. The rich 
envied young duke dreaded to ask ; and, with all his 
frank bluffness of manner, he was so delicate-mindec 


202 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

towards these two, whom he loved best of human 
beings, that no word on the subject had yet crossed 
his lips to Ronald, though they had met not 
only that day, but once before after Islay’s return. 
The latter had indeed said to Airlie, as seemed 
natural : 

“ Well, and Miss Seaton — what news of her ? ” 

“ I will tell you all about that some other day ; 
don’t ask me now,” Airlie answered, with a hasty air, 
gloom settling on his handsome brow. 

He was making hurried preparations at the time ; 
but, from his evident dejection, his cousin guessed 
something was amiss. “Want of money no doubt,” 
he said to himself ; “ and I, who have more than I 
know what to do with ” 

However, Islay had at least settled in his own 
mind that Guelda must be housed under his roof. 
“ And if I show myself at Brighton, none of the 
gossip-mongers will be able to wag their tongues, 
though Grizel is away. They will know nothing 
about it,” he concluded, with almost a cheerful 
satisfaction. 

Guelda, for her part, though a little troubled at the 
arrangement, knew not what objection to offer. 
Where else indeed could she go ? Good kind Islay, 
best of friends, she was loth to give him so much 
trouble ; and yet how glad, how grateful she was to 
feel thus sheltered again ! 

So the grave Scotch housekeeper came, who had 
been thirty years in the duke’s household, to whom 
Islay explained as much as was necessary to account 
for Miss Seaton’s visit during Lady Grizel’s absence. 
And then Guelda was conducted up-stairs to take 
off her hat and be installed in Lady Grizel’s own 
room ; “ that was always kept prepared, for no one 
knew when her ladyship might be pleased to come 
back.” 

When she returned downstairs with her glossy hair 
as beautiful as ever and her simple dress as carefully 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


203 


arranged as was possible in the circumstances to do 
honour to her host, Islay’s face brightened up. 

“ Ah, now you look more as if you were at home ! ” 
he exclaimed. 

“ I feel at home,” smiled Guelda. 

Following his wish, the girl said nothing of her 
troubles until they had dined together. After all, 
why be uneasy and in haste when she had such a 
kind and powerful friend and brother ? So Guelda gave 
herself up to the influences of the moment, and en- 
joyed the exquisite little dishes, the hot-houSe flowers, 
the rare old wine that Islay desired to be brought up 
to her, to the utter confusion of mind of his major- 
domo. That wine! Not a bottle of it had been 
touched since the days of the duke’s father, and 
then it was only offered to royal guests. Guelda did 
not in the least know how her best friend was striv- 
ing to honour her. 

But, when liqueurs and coffee had been brought 
and the servants had noiselessly vanished, Islay, with 
a breath of secret relief, though its gladness was like 
pain, led his fair guest back into his own sitting-room, 
and enthroning her in the most luxurious of the 
many easy lounges, drew up a chair close by for 
himself. Then bending forward with his eyes fixed 
on her face he prepared to listen with the most 
earnest attention. 

Guelda began to describe all that had happened 
before and after her grandfather’s death, in simple 
but vivid language. Her own conviction of the 
truth of her suspicions were so strong that her 
hearer from the first looked gravely startled. When 
Guelda passed on to tell, with quivering lips and 
flashing wet eyes, of the letters that had been 
stopped, her own and Airlie’s, Islay averted his gaze 
and bent his head ; but he muttered with smouldering 
wrath : 

“ The cur ! If a man is mean enough to do that, 
he would do anything.” 


204 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


Poor Guelda had to force her voice to tell as 
steadily as she could of Ronald’s visit ; of how the 
man who called himself her uncle had insulted Airlie, 
and ordered him to leave. 

“ But surely you will be true to Ronald in spite of 
that, or anything ! ” uttered Islay hotly, he who was 
Ronald’s unsuccessful rival ; and as he spoke he 
raised his head and looked at her straight. 

“ I will be true to him all my life,” answered Guelda 
firmly. “ But, for his own sake, I have told him I 
cannot marry him, and therefore will never marry at 
all.” 

“But why not, in, the name of pity? Why not, 
Guelda — Miss Seaton — I beg your pardon. My dear 
girl, what can be your reason ? ” 

“ Because I am too penniless for him ; my grand- 
father’s will was never found. No, no, I remember 
only too well what Grizel once said, that Ronald was 
one of those beings whose natural sphere seems that 
of good position and riches. He is, as it were, to the 
manner born. You cannot imagine him poor ; open- 
handed and generous as he is, struggling to save 
every penny, you cannot fancy him married on an 
income that was never sufficient for himself, sacrificing 
all his pleasures, his coats becoming threadbare ; and 
I — however he loved me — I should feel it all, and know 
he was striving to hide from me that he felt a disap- 
pointed man.” 

“He need not be that. Ronald has brilliant 
powers of mind, that are wasted as a soldier. He 
would make his name in the House, I know, and get 
a good place under Government — and then there is 
my interest.” 

“ A man cannot rise when too heavily weighted ; 
his career would be marred,” repeated Guelda, in a 
sad weary intonation, implying she had long since 
thought it all out. 

“ But he is my next of kin — my almost brother. 
If this is all which stops you both from being happy, for 


TIIE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 205 

Heaven’s sake let him take from me what is no gift 
worth having. I mean what costs me nothing — mere 
money I neither need nor care for,” went on Islay, 
in urgent, gentle persuasion, with a look and gesture 
as if he felt almost ashamed to offer such dross. 

“ Money from you ? My dear friend, no ; he could 
not accept it ! But what use is there in talking 
when there is war ? — and I saw in the paper that his 
regiment is ordered to Egypt,” answered Guelda, a 
little wildly, half-laughing and half-crying. 

“Would you not wish to see Ronald before he 
goes ? ” quickly asked Islay, struck with a sudden 
thought. 

“ No, no ; I dare not. It would be too painful — 
don’t ask me.” The girl’s voice shook, and the man 
beside her turned away his head to allow her to re- 
cover self-control. 

“ Will you not tell me the rest about this man — 
this Lord Lyndon ? ” he said presently, in a soothing 
voice. 

So then he was told all the rest, all Guelda’s grow- 
ing fears and suspicions that had at last culminated 
in certainty. “ So you see I know he is an impostor,” 
she ended, triumphantly, and looked at the duke for 
confirmation. 

Alas ! Islay sat silent, staring hard at the Persian 
rugs that covered the floor. Then he turned his 
honest grey eyes on Guelda as he tried to smile 
apologetically ; and she knew already what he was 
going to say. 

“ O, come, you know — an Impostor ! Isn’t that 
rather far-fetched ? ” he put in with hesitation. “ That 
this man may have burnt the will, and that he has 
certainly behaved in a most ungentlemanlike and 
tyrannical way, I do not doubt for a moment. But 
still to say that he is not Lord Lyndon’s son, is — 
is ” 

« It is the truth ! ” burst from Guelda’s passionate 
lips. “ Good heavens 1 remember what is at stake ! 


2J6 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


My grandfather was failing fast when this man came, 
his faculties almost gone. And now my little brother 
is, I believe, robbed of his inheritance, and this man 
is trying to 'kill him, body and soul. In any case, 
Islay, his conduct to us is no imagination of mine ; 
and you don’t seem to understand that I am speak- 
ing sober truth.” 

(Oh, he was so maddeningly slow — so kind, but 
withal so dull of intellect ! Guelda ground her foot 
on the floor.) 

“ He wants to declare me insane — mad ! ” she con- 
tinued, excitedly. “ He is advertising for me, and 
following me, I tell you, to shut me up in an asylum 
— I who am as sane as you are — I whom he hates 
because I have discovered him, and am fighting for 
little Bertrand’s cause ! Ah, Islay, Islay, don’t you 
desert me, you of all men ! ” cried poor Guelda, with 
all her long pent emotion, her fears and pathos of 
sisterly love, her passionate sense of wrong and 
cruelty trembling in her voice, as, clasping her hands, 
almost unconscious of what she was doing, the beau- 
tiful girl slid from her chair, and, half-kneeling, 
raised her streaming eyes to implore Islay’s help. 
“You are my only hope, my only trust,” she stam- 
mered, beseechingly. “ Don’t forsake me ; but for 
the sake of the past, say you will ” 

The words died on Guelda’s lips, that remained 
parted. Her eyes were looking past the duke, trans- 
fixed to the door behind him, where, like a man 
turned to stone, with white, stern face, stood Ronald 
Airlie. 

A moment — nay two — both thus regarded each 
other. Then, even as Guelda rose, wildly uttering 
his name and holding out both hands, Ronald 
started, as if waking, and, with one look of reproach 
that seemed to blight the unhappy girl 'like a curse, 
he was gone. He flung himself out of Islay House, 
with the passions of love, anger, and jealousy more 
bitter than death, struggling like demons in his soul. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


207 


“ I will never see her again ; never] ” he breathed 
fiercely to himself between his set teeth. 

In one short hour he would be leaving for Egypt 
— for the seat of war. What did it matter if a bullet 
now found its billet in his heart? The chances 
were, indeed, that never more again would Ronald 
Airlie behold Guelda’s face on earth. 


208 


THE .FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 

On Airlie’s name being uttered by Guelda, Islay 
started up also, but only to hear the outer hall door 
hastily closed. 

“ Ronald Airlie ! Great heavens, what a mistake ! ” 
he exclaimed, in accents of the most genuine dismay. 
Then his glance fell on Guelda’s crouching figure, 
her white face quivering with deepest distress. 
“ Don’t mind ! It will be all right 1 I will explain ! ” 
he stammered. 

“ Go to him — tell him 1 ” the poor girl just 
articulated. 

“ I will. I — oh, heavens, it is too late ! ” and Islay 
stood with drooping head, a picture of abject peni- 
tence. “ I was going to see him, to say good-bye 
before he started for Egypt to-morrow. I meant to 
go after you had told me all — but it is later than I 
thought. He has always a latch-key of this house 
to let himself in when he likes, so, thinking I had 
forgotten him — as if that were likely — he must have 
rushed in to take leave of me.” 

“ But you can follow him : you can find him. Ex- 
plain everything,” implored Guelda, feeling almost 
overcome with unmerited shame. 

“I will try my very best. Yes, yes; make your 
mind easy — it will be all right in half-an-hour.” 

And so, assuming a cheerful tone, Islay grasped 
his guest’s hand with a hearty pressure, and hurried 
out to find Airlie, as he said. 

Alas, it was in vain ! Ronald was not leaving with 
the rest of the regiment in the early morning, but had 
been despatched beforehand on special service ; even 
whilst his friend sought him in barracks he was 


THE EH EARS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


209 


speeding from London ; one more heavy heart would 
soon be far from England. Islay asked in his 
trouble when the troops embarked. He would go 
down too, and see the ship off, and so catch a parting 
word with his cousin. 

No use ! Airlie would have already sailed he was 
told. A sudden call for his services had arisen. He 
had not known himself, any more than Islay, that he 
would be needed to start earlier than was at first 
anticipated. Hence his hurried visit to Islay House, 
to take farewell of its owner. 

Letting himself in with his latch-key as he was 
used to do, being always treated as one of the family, 
his astonished gaze had rested on Guelda — Guelda, 
his love, of whom he had last taken such a pained 
farewell in the autumn, when she had hidden him 
leave her for his own good. He had sworn then in 
his heart that, though he must needs do so for the 
present, he would return ,as soon as ever he could 
offer her a home. Visions of fighting his way up- 
ward, of some years of separation, maybe of wounds 
perhaps, and surely heart-ache, but still of laurels, 
and Guelda herself to be gained, had flitted before 
Ronald’s vision, even as his love had looked up at 
him under the dark Sheen yew-trees with her sweet, 
pleading face. Then, when he was just starting for 
the seat of war— when in his soldier’s heart he was 
breathing but a few minutes back a hasty prayer for 
her happiness, and longing to see her again just for 
a moment — lo, thus he saw her ! 

Alone in Islay’s house, in his own room, having just 
dined in his sole company; for through the open 
door could be seen the table still bearing traces of 
that little feast for two which had given the duke a 
short-lived taste of that happiness which he had so 
earnestly hoped once in his honest heart “ might have 
been.” And she was on her knees to the lover she 
had rejected, weeping and looking up beseechingly at 
Islay. 


14 


210 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

“ Merciful powers, what can he have thought of it ? * 
groaned good Islay to himself, turning hot at the 
recollection. Ronald would be generous ; he would 
cut off his right hand, nay, die, before he would permit 
himself to utter one word of reproach. Yet from the 
haste with which he had rushed out, not uttering even 
what might be a last farewell on earth to his more 
than brother and the girl he so passionately loved, 
evidently he believed the worst — that Islay was his 
successful rival, that Guelda’s affections, or at least 
her wishes, had been easily changed. 

Islay thought he could guess all the workings of 
Ronald’s mind, and tormented himself thinking it 
over ; yet he always ended with the comforting 
assurance : 

“ I will write to Ronald. He will know it’s all right 
by the time he lands.” 

But the latter never knew — indeed little anyone 
imagined of the stormy passion, the anguish of 
jealousy and reproach against these he loved, that 
made Airlie’s heart a battle-field from the time he 
saw England’s shores fade away till the first view of 
Egyptian soil and the town of Alexandria loomed 
over the dark -blue water. With stern eagerness 
Ronald hailed the prospect of those nearing bloody 
battle-fields that yet could not be more deadly to all 
he prized ; in which he should forget awhile this inner 
strife that was killing his belief in all things that 
make life worth living — in friendship, honour, and a 
good woman’s love. 

Saddened, Islay came with slow steps to see his 
visitor next day, and tried to console her as he had 
tried to console himself, with the hope that a letter 
would yet make “all things right.” 

“ As right as they can be : yes. You are very good, 
and I thank you with all my heart,” murmured poor 
Guelda with a pale smile, feeling she must do her best 
to show gratitude to this kind true man. And yet to 
have been seen thus in his house by Ronald, uttering 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


211 


wild words of pleading the latter could not have 
understood — it was terrible ! As she tossed on her 
bed wide awake through the long night-hours the 
blood had flamed up often in Guelda’s face, and she 
buried her face in the darkness on her pillow, again 
and again asking herself, “ What must he have 
thought ? ” Alas, he could put no other construction 
on her words than that she was pleading to Islay ! 
For what ? Perhaps a renewal of the suit she had 
before denied him. 

By the morning some subtle change, unknown to 
himself, had come over Islay’s late common-sense 
view of regarding Guelda’s strange story. He felt 
somehow humbled in his own estimation by Ronald’s 
late misconception of himself. “ I blundered, as usual,” 
he said to himself heavily. Perhaps he was also 
wrong about Guelda. So, brooding over his thoughts, 
he grew slowly almost persuaded. 

Before the next day was fully gone no shadow of 
doubt remained on his mind. For, having now sent 
the detective whom he had already fruitlessly em- 
ployed to find Guelda, down to her lodgings to make 
inquiries, he was horrified to hear that three gentle- 
men, who called themselves “ friends of Miss Seaton,” 
had been there the evening before. They had waited 
till nearly mid-night, and only went away after 
bidding the landlady let them know the first thing in 
the morning, or at any time later, if the young lady 
had returned. The woman, a good Samaritan, mis- 
taking the duke’s messenger, begged him to tell his 
master that she was on the look-out for the poor 
dear, to persuade her to return peaceably with 
the kind friends from whom she had run away, 
but added tearfully she was in fears her young 
lodger had made away with herself. Plainly Guelda 
had only escaped in time during that evening of the 
fog. 

“ So my enemy is in London and in active pursuit,” 
she said, with a courageous smile that surprised her 

14* 


212 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


protector. “ Well, so much the better ! Now for 
open war ! ” 

When dangers or difficulties were close at hand to 
be fought with, Guelda’s spirit always rose. She said 
now in her heart, almost gaily, as she set her lips 
tight, while a very bright, determined gleam shone in 
her eyes, “ I will overcome him if I have the strength 
and the wit, and that it is granted me to fulfil this 
task. If not, at least I shall not fail for want of 
doing my best.” But where her affection was con- 
cerned — with fears for her little brother, hopeless 
longing thoughts of Ronald — then only Guelda’s high 
heart failed, and she became a weak woman, troubled 
by vague alarms, ready to start at shadows. 

“You must let me take steps at once to stop this 
villain from further persecution. It is for me to fight 
him, now you have put the matter in my hands,” said 
Islay, slowly and moodily. Then, his wrath growing 
gradually stronger and hotter as he brooded, he 
suddenly burst out, “ By Heavens ! to think of this 
fellow daring to dream of committing such a crime, 
and towards you — you ! Did he suppose that you 
had no friends, after being perhaps the most admired 
girl who has been seen for many a season, or that they 
are such dastards that not one would shield you ? I 
would gladly break every bone in his body myself, 
whether he is your uncle or not. It makes my blood 
boil only to think of it ! ” And his face took a grim 
expression which augured ill for Lord Lyndon’s little 
scheme. 

“ Pray don’t thrash him now ; I think it would be 
wiser not,” said Guelda in a firm, deliberate voice. 
“You see we must do nothing rash, or it might be 
the worse for Bino. You will do all you can for his 
sake, will you not ? ” — and she looked earnestly in his 
face. 

“ For your sake,” returned Islay, looking her straight 
in the eyes with a stolid almost dull stare in his own 
grey ones. And he repeated slowly, weighing his 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


213 


words, “ For your sake I will do everything for you 
that is possible for a man to do. Do you understand 
that ? ” 

A slow flush mounted in Guelda’s cheeks, and she 
dropped her eyes, answering in low, almost pained 
accents : 

“You are so good to me, and I can never give you 
anything in return all my life, except just thanks.” 

“ I understand that ; I expect nothing more,” Islay 
steadily answered, though there may have been a little 
sinking in his heart at what he yet knew she would 
say. “ Friendship, you see, Guelda — I may call you 
Guelda ? — is not a mere balancing of services given 
and taken.” 

Then a short consultation was held between them. 
Islay was urgent that he should himself call on Lord 
Lyndon at once, and peremptorily declare that 
Guelda’s friends had espoused her cause, therefore 
his lordship must be prepared to fight other than a 
helpless orphan girl. 

Against this course Guelda had nothing to say. 
Indeed her mind was so troubled by thoughts of 
Ronald that she was unable to think clearly. Islay 
therefore carried his point, and at once put it into 
execution with hasty zeal. Driving up to Belgrave 
Square in an unpretentious brougham he often used, 
on which no arm§ or coronet betrayed his rank, he 
simply sent in word to say that a gentleman wished 
to see Lord Lyndon on business. As Guelda had 
led him to expect, there was considerable delay and 
much going to and fro on the part of the ill-trained 
staff of servants that now formed the Lyndon 
establishment — evidently every caller produced some 
amazement. 

“ Lord Lyndon never saw anyone,” was the first 
answer, sent by Lyndon himself : still Islay persisted. 
“ What was his business ? ” came as second message 
from the invisible lord of the mansion. Islay sent 
back to say he knew Lord Lyndon would prefer that 


214 


TEE FEEAXS OF LADY FOKTUNE. 


being told only to himself. At last a red-faced young 
man in carpet slippers and unshaved, with watery 
eyes, and hands thrust deep in the pocket of a chess- 
board suit, surreptitiously reconnoitred the brougham, 
putting his face round the edge of the door. 

‘“By Jove, that’s a good bit of horseflesh!” he 
exclaimed in a familiar whisper to one of the servants, 
and was then retiring, when Islay, guessing he saw 
the sporting doctor, stepped forward and carelessly 
addressed him. 

“Nice animal that of mine, isn’t it? If you like 
him I have two or three more in my stable you would 
fancy as much or more.” The village apothecary, 
taken by Islay’s easy tones, came nearer, with a 
shuffling gait, half gratified, yet shy at being accosted 
by such a swell : — and in these clothes too ; not half 
dressed for town, he said to himself Then after a 
few words of expatiation on the horse, he observed 
bashfully : 

“’Ton my soul, I’m quite ashamed of standing out 
here in my slippers ; but this fellow Lyndon — I’m 
staying here with him— he does slummick about so ; 
never down to breakfast, the lazy beggar ; he’s only 
finishing his now ; And one gets into the same way, 
you know.” 

“Look here — you seem great friends with Lord 
Lyndon ; can’t you get him to see me, and I’ll be 
awfully obliged to you ? ” said Islay, forcing himself 
to a genial tone, though he revolted in secret from 
being civil to such a cad. 

The sporting Galen grinned. 

“ He ain’t visible, really. ’Pon my soul, it’s quite 
true ; he never will see any living soul but me, 
hardly.” 

“ But why not ? He’s Lord Lyndon, is he not, with 
a large fortune and estate ? A great many persons 
must come to see him on business.” 

“ He don’t do any business himself, except see his 
lawyer. You would almost think he was a leper, he’s 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 215 

always in such a funk about going into society ; but, 
I say, what is your business— eh ? ” 

Islay glanced hesitatingly for inspiration at the 
horse in his brougham and hemmed, not knowing 
what to say. The other mistook him, and exclaimed 
in surprise : 

“ Why, you are surely never come about a deal ? ” 

“ I did not say I was ; but why not — eh ? ” 

“ W ell, I say, what a swell you look to be a dealer ! 
I never should have thought it ! You London 
fellows do cut us country ones out ! Ha, ha, ha ! I 
do a goodish bit in that line myself!” 

“ Look here — you’re a good sort of fellow, I can 
see,” interrupted Islay, despising himself, yet resolved 
to do his utmost to gain admittance to this mysterious 
uncle of Guelda’s. “ He’s a friend of yours, that’s 
very plain ; you can do what you like with him — 
eh?” 

A flunkey at this moment approached and said to 
Islay impertinently : 

“ There’s no use in waiting. His lordship, I know, 
won’t sfee no one.” 

“Won’t he? Gammon!” uttered the little doctor, 
whose conceit had been successfully tickled by the 
visitor. “He’ll do it, if I ask him. You come along 
with me.” 

In another minute, Islay stood face to face with 
Guelda’s persecutor. 


216 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

A SORRY-LOOKING Lord Lyndon met the duke’s 
sight. He was dishevelled, dressed in a loose, soiled 
yachting-suit, and red-eyed. Plainly both he and 
the doctor had sat up drinking most part of the 
night. 

Nevertheless the man’s likeness to the late lord, 
still more his resemblance to the portraits of Robert 
Seaton, wearing a peculiarly-shaped, pointed mous- 
tache and with hair receding in sharp points from 
the temples, struck Islay with force. Surely Guelda 
must be dreaming ! 

“Who’s this gentleman, Jobling? What’s the 
meaning of this ? I don’t see anybody,” hastily 
muttered the master of the house, giving an angry, 
furtive glance at his associate from where he sat over 
his untasted breakfast. 

“ All right, old man ; this gentleman has been talking 
to me at the door, so I brought him in,” answered 
Jobling, with an air meant for easy unconcern, though 
he turned uncomfortable under his patron’s glance, 
and made haste to mix himself a brandy-and-soda, 
interpolating, “ What a splitting head I have,” in 
explanation. “ He has got a very fine horse out there 
for you to see; and, if I’m a judge ” 

“ I did not come to see you about horses, Lord 
Lyndon,” interrupted Islay, dropping his late hail- 
fellow manner, and speaking with such a well-bred 
but stern dignity that Jobling started, and stared as 
if a new-comer had entered. “ There is my name ; ” 
and he handed his card. 

“ The Duke of Islay ! ” cried Lyndon, scrambling 
to his feet, as he gave one side glance of fury at the 


THE FEEAKS OF LADY FOETUNE. 


217 


aghast doctor ; then, assuming a sudden politeness 
that was almost cringing, he continued, “ This is an 
unexpected pleasure. Will your grace sit down ? I 
had no idea ” 

Islay refused, with a slight gesture, a chair that 
Jobling, who seemed panic-struck, had shuffled to push 
towards him. 

“No, thank you ; I prefer standing. My visit here 
has an object, Lord Lyndon, that I may as well state 
at once. It concerns Miss Seaton.” 

“ Ah, yes ; my poor brother’s daughter — yes, 
indeed ! ” 

His lordship looked manifestly uneasy, and his 
shifting eyes moved restlessly from side to side. 

“ Will you tell me why she left your roof, and 
whether you know where she is at present ? ” 

“ I really ” Lyndon hemmed and faltered un- 

easily ; then, changing his tone to one of great distress, 
asseverated — “ Poor girl ! She is very dear to me — 
as dear as if she were my own daughter, I assure 
your grace ; but she is wilful ; and, I am sorry to say 
it, but of late unhappily she has been — ahem — a little 
flighty.” 

“ Flighty ! ” thundered Islay. “ I have the honour 
of being counted among Miss Seaton’s friends, and 
that is not a word to be applied to her. What do 
you mean, sir ? ” 

With that instinct of mutual recognition possessed 
by all well-bred men, Islay’s impression of this man’s 
resemblance to Robert Seaton had vanished in that 
short conversation. “ The wretch is not a gentleman,” 
he already had decided in his heart. “ He brought 
up at Eton, at Oxford — impossible ! ” A man may 
fall very low ; and Islay, being rich and kind-hearted, 
had known and helped in his time more than one of 
good family, who had literally been reduced to beggaiy 
and the worst of shifts. But, even then, they had 
never lost an indefinable something that lent a certain 
pitiful dignity to their rags. “ Once a gentleman 


218 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


always one,” was Islay’s simple creed ; and this man, 
he would swear, had never been one. 

“ As I am her uncle, I may be allowed perhaps to 
know what I say, though what I do say is with the 
greatest reluctance,” softly replied Lyndon, casting 
down his eyes and placing his finger-tips together on 
the table with an air of regretful embarrassment. 
“ My word applied not to her conduct, but to her 
state of mind — of nerves. A lady of title, my neigh- 
bour — in fact, Lady Ermyntrude Gamble, I may 
mention — who is a particular friend of mine, will 
bear me out in what I say with pain. My niece 
Guelda, whether from grief at her grandfather’s death 
or what, I can’t say, has been lately unhinged — she is 
upset in her nerves — she is in fact ” 

“A little touched in the upper story,” put in 
Jobling, tapping his forehead in helpful illustration. 

“ It is an infernal lie ! ” shouted Islay, in an out- 
burst of passion he could not control. “ Miss Seaton 
is at this moment as sane as I am ! You, sir — you 
who call yourself her uncle, and have driven her from 
the home that was hers — you who hounded her with 
the ruffians you set on her track, and who are trying 
to dog her footsteps at this moment — you who would 
drag an innocent girl to the unspeakable horrors of 
an asylum, for your own black ends, how dare you 
take her name upon your hypocrite lips with words 
of fondness ? But I warn you, your game is over ; 
and your dastardly dealings shall be exposed.” 

Lyndon’s olive complexion grew even more sallow 
as Islay hurled this fierce invective against him. The 
man seemed to draw into himself and shrink visibly, 
but only as if preparing for a spring. His pale face 
became like a mask, only the eyes that were fixed on 
his enemy showed life, for they glittered restlessly 
still. With almost a smile, he softly asked : 

“ So you have seen her, duke, lately, it appears. 
You know where she is.” 

“ I do know. She is safe under the shelter of my 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 219 

roof/’ responded Islay bluntly, drawing himself up, 
and looking certainly not a man to be meddled with. 
“ I and her other friends mean to protect Miss Seaton 
in future from your diabolical attempts upon het 
liberty, Lord Lyndon. You are warned now ; I 
should hardly think you will dare to persevere.” 

His enemy was silent a moment or two. 

“ I may have been wrong, not being used to love- 
sick girls, nor to their queer vagaries. If so, the 
respectable gentleman whose advice I meant to follow 
would have set all straight ; and not only myself but 
Lady Ermyntrude Gamble would have been sorry 
for our mistake. I consulted her as a woman and a 
mother,” he said, with fawning humility. 

“ A woman — a she-fiend ! ” muttered Islay below 
his breath. 

A pale sneer curved Lyndon’s lips ; he leant for- 
ward, his snake-like eyes never turning from studying 
Islay’s expression. 

“ And so Guelda Seaton is under your roof and 
under your protection ? May I ask how soon does 
your grace intend to marry her ? ” 

Islay started, for the shaft had passed between the 
joints of his harness of pride and lodged quivering in 
his heart. For a moment only, because he was so 
honest, simple-minded a man, he had nothing to say. 
Then he remembered himself, and, with a look and 
manner befitting the chief of his old northern race, 
whose princely possessions were as nothing in their 
eyes compared with their pride of a descent equalling 
sovereignty and a hereditary honour that was stainless, 
he simply said : 

“ If Miss Seaton had deigned to accept me, I 
should have considered her hand as the highest 
honour ever bestowed upon me. As it is, I am 
proud to shelter her as the promised wife of my 
cousin, Captain Airlie.” 

“ Then allow me to tell you, I heard her with my 
own ears refuse to marry him ; so, if you won’t have 


220 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE." 


her, she is likely to fall between two stools to the 
ground. Well, I am not surprised your grace 
hesitates, for Airlie is the man she fancies, though 
she says he’s too poor for her. And perhaps you 
would hardly like to feel that the Duchess of Islay 
was in love with your cousin. He, he ! ” 

“ Do you dare to insinuate ? ” breathed Islay, 

half-choked, and making a step forward. He felt 
baited, attacked, at a disadvantage in the most tender 
and sacred of his feelings, by the venomous words 
and sly leering looks of the wretch before him. 

“ This is my own house, I believe,” uttered his 
lordship hastily retreating. “Jobling, stay by the 
bell,” he added. 

Islay stood still. It was beneath his dignity, im- 
possible to meet this man on his own vulgar level, to 
bandy words, or to compromise Guelda’s name by 
knocking down this so-called Lyndon. He took 
another course, and said : 

“ I must demand an explanation, in Miss Seaton’s 
name. If you persist in trying to subject her to such 
an outrage as having the question of her sanity tested, 
understand that her friends will oppose you — among 
them myself — and, if expense were an object, none 
should be spared. Furthermore, your own ante- 
cedents will naturally give rise to perhaps disagreeable 
investigations or comments ; you best know if you are 
prepared to face these.” 

“ What do you mean to hint, sir ? It — it — it is a 
libel. Jobling you are my witness,” snarled Lyndon, 
looking paler, but still more dangerous. 

“We do not know much of how Mr. Robert 
Seaton spent many years of his life. It might be 
an interesting recital from the witness-box — that is 
all.” 

Lyndon looked entrapped. Plainly he felt treading 
in a quagmire, so it was with a humble sullennoss that 
he asked ; 

“ What do you want me to do ? ” 


"the freaks of lady fortune. m 

“ To bind yourself not to molest Miss Seaton 
further, under penalty of the consequences I have 
just mentioned.” 

“Well” — the other broke into a short laugh — 
“ every man who has knocked about the world like 
me has had some roughish times he may not care to 
tell about, though I’ve been no worse than others, I 
hope. As to the girl, if I’m wrong I am wrong. So, 
if you and your friends undertake to keep her, I’ve 
nothing to say. As to my wanting to put her in an 
asylum, that is all bosh. I never said so. Where are 
her proofs ? Let her produce them. But I did think 
she was a bit off her head, poor girl, and, what’s more, 
her maid and Lady Ermyntrude Gamble thought the 
same. That’s what made her run away. No wonder 
I tried to find her and advertised. Now, Duke, is 
that all fair and square. I’ll give you my hand upon 
it to interfere no more about her, so we’ll part friends 
— eh ? Perhaps ” — with a keenly sly look — “ it’s as 
well you have arranged she’s to marry your cousin, 
for she is over ears in love in that quarter.” 

“ I have arranged nothing. It is for them to settle 
their own affairs, not for me,” replied Islay brusquely, 
feeling savage in his heart. 

He left Lyndon abruptly, gave a careless nod to 
Jobling, who had gazed open-mouthed at the scene, 
and returned home, feeling only half victorious. 
Despite himself, the man’s envenomed hints upon the 
situation rankled in his mind. 


222 


TEE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

“ NOW that you have seen him yourself, what do you 
really think ? ” asked Guelda eagerly, for on Islay’s 
answer depended all her hopes. If he held back, 
little Bertrand’s inheritance was lost, and the boy 
would grow up an untutored Orlando, without fortune, 
and degraded in mind, body, and estate. 

Said Islay slowly : 

“ He is not Robert Seaton, I believe ; but if not, 
who is he ? ” 

“ Ah, that is the question I cannot solve ! ” replied 
the girl, sighing. “ He knows so much of the Lyndon 
family history, and yet not enough. Have you con- 
sulted your lawyers, as you said you would do, this 
morning ? ” 

“Yes; I went straight to them after leaving 
Lyndon House. They were exceedingly disbelieving 
at first about our suspicions, saying that, if your 
grandfather recognized this man as his son and the 
old butler thinks he is Robert Seaton, it will be very, 
very difficult to disprove their evidences.” 

“ But he is an impostor, nevertheless ! I know it 
— I can swear to it ! And if no one else believes it, or 
will help me, I will work alone, on my little brother’s 
behalf, to dislodge this robber ; even if I do not 
succeed till I am an old woman ! ” exclaimed Guelda, 
with her soul in her eyes, her head thrown back, her 
colour high. 

“Don’t I believe it? I will help you,” said Islay 
with a rather sad look. (Would she never learn to 
trust him ?) “ My lawyers say there is only one 

thing to be done, and that immediately, in this 
matter.” 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 223 

“ What is it — what ? ” 

“ Some one must go out to Australia, and find out 
whether your uncle Robert Seaton really died or not 
So I have settled with them that I start myself the 
day after to-morrow,” was Islay’s quiet, almost dull 
response. 


“ I have been anxious to tell you of this strange 
business, Sir Julian, because you are one of the few 
persons we can think of who is supposed to have 
known Robert Seaton,” said Islay the next afternoon, 
as, after a somewhat lengthy and earnest conversation 
with Sir Julian Inglis, both men were standing in the 
deep window-embrasure of one of the principal 
London clubs. 

“Yes, I knew him,” returned the old diplomatist, 
speaking thoughtfully, as his mind travelled back 
searching into the past. “ What is more, I was 
happy to do the young fellow a service once. He 
had come up from college, and was just then leading 
a fast life in London, that very soon plunged him 
into debt, and brought him into disgrace with his 
father. Lyndon had kept him too tight, which never 
answers. So young Robert got into a wild set, and 
knew few of his father’s old friends. Well, he became 
embarrassed once, and, being sorry for the lad, I was 
very glad, on happening to learn the circumstances, 
to help him out of a bad plight. I never saw him 
afterwards ; but I think he ought to remember the 
matter, if this is the real man.” 

“ Let us try him. Come and call,” suggested Islay, 
as eagerly as a big schoolboy. 

The old man smiled more slowly, but consented. 

The name of Sir Julian Inglis produced no effect, 
however. Lord Lyndon’s carriage— a brougham — 
was waiting at the door of Lyndon House. Sir Julian 
accordingly sent up a message to say he would not 
detain his lordship, but would nevertheless be glad to 


224 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


see him for a few minutes, if possible. The usual 
excuse came back. 

“ Lord Lyndon was sorry, but was just going to 
drive.” 

Sir Julian shook his head. 

“ It looks strange, I own — now, it looks strange. I 
thought he would have seen me.” 

The following afternoon, Islay stood holding 
Guelda’ s hand with a farewell brotherly clasp. 

“ Keep up your spirits ! I am pretty certain to 
bring back news of some kind. God bless you ! 
And — look here, I’ve tried in vain to see Grizel and 
tell her about you ; but it’s of no avail. They told 
me that, for six weeks or so still, she would open no 
letters or hear any news from the outside world that 
might distract her mind. I tried to insist ; but a 
nun of some kind — I could see little difference, though 
it is called a Church of England community — said 
Sister Griselda’s resolve was dictated by the highest 
motives and not to be shaken. Fancy my sister who 
has always been so kind-hearted and sensible, shutting 
herself up like that from all our troubles ! I cannot 
tell you how it vexes me ! If only she were here 
now ! ” 

“ She will be her old self again when we do see her. 
Don’t be troubled on my account. I shall do 
famously now ! ” answered Guelda, forcing a cheer- 
fulness on parting with this good friend she was far 
from feeling. 

“ Then you mean to follow up this plan you and 
Sir Julian have struck out together, of singing at 
private parties ? I wish it were otherwise, Guelda. 
If you would only accept this loan from me that I 
have all arranged for with my lawyers.’* 

“ Ah, Islay, you are indeed the best of friends ! 
But you have never had to learn how bitter it is to 
borrow, nor how sweet it is to maintain oneself ; even 
if one has to toil far harder than by singing for one’s 
daily bread. Thank you from my heart all the same 1 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


225 


But Sir Julian has already procured me two evening 
engagements, and has held out golden hopes of more. 
If- this goes on, I shall grow quite rich soon.” 

“ I trust so,” said Islay doubtfully. “ But I hate 
the idea of your singing for perhaps any vulgar 
parvenus who please to employ you. And as to 
what Ronald will think ” 

“ Say no more ! ” interrupted Guelda, with sharp 
pain. “ I must not remember any longer what he 
may wish. My poor little brother — that helpless, 
neglected child — he is the only one now whom it is 
my duty to consider ! I must work to keep myself 
now, but think of him always and of how best to help 
him. The necklace of pearls that Benjamin is keep- 
ing for me I have devoted to my boy’s service. So 
long as possible I will not sell it to use a penny of 
the price for myself ; but when the time comes, he 
shall have it all to fight his good cause.” 

“ May it prosper ; ” said Islay fervently ; then 
added, low and composedly: “You remember the 
other evening in Benjamin’s shop ? Perhaps you 
wondered what I was doing. The fact is, not know- 
ing about this — ahem ! — delay between you and 
Ronald, and time being heavy while I could not find 
you, I went to see Benjamin about getting some 
diamonds set, as I fancied, for a wedding present for 
you. Well, there — I hope to see you wear them yet. 
Keep up your spirits ; Ronald will come back all 
right ; ” and wringing Guelda’s hand once more, Islay 
was gone. 

A few hours later a simple-mannered passenger, 
Mr. Airlie by name, was standing on the deck of a 
great steamer bound for Australia. 


226 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER XXX. 

And what of Lady Grizel’s lonely existence mean- 
time, since those autumn days in Scotland ? Her 
whole future life had then seemed to herself suddenly 
blighted, as the chill touch of winter began to strip 
the birks and braes of their summer bravery. Day 
by day, while, as in duty bound, entertaining her 
brother’s guests the duke’s sister looked at the 
heathery moors over which they rode or drove, and 
thought in her own proud heart that just as the 
purple bloom was dying away, turning brown and 
sodden and dead, so were the hopes of all her life 
hitherto now withered to blackness. 

And summer would come back again to the moors 
and glens around Islay Castle. Again the birches 
would wave in the freshness of their spring leafage, 
and the waters of the loch would laugh up to the blue 
sky above. But summer, mused Grizel Airlie, bit- 
tirly, would never more return to her life ; her hopes 
might never again revive with a new up-springing of 
joy. The snows that were now settling in ever-widen- 
ing patches on the Grampians seemed to have fallen 
likewise on her heart. So it must remain, dead 
henceforth, under its icy shroud of virgin white. 

Grizel was neither blind to her brother’s pain and 
disappointment on learning Guelda’s engagement to 
Ronald Airlie, nor was she unsympathetic. 

“ But he is a man ; he will get over his chagrin 
soon, and some other girl will most likely catch his 
heart at the rebound of pride ; and just as probably I 
shall dislike her intensely,” thought her ladyship in 
bitter scorn. 

Next to Ronald, she loved her brother best in the 
wide world. She had loved Guelda dearly too, 


THE FHEAKS OP LADY FOKTUNE. 227 

though loving few friends ; nay, she would not abate 
her affection for Ronald’s bride by one jot even now. 
Yet it was hard to bear — very hard ! 

Had Islay stayed at home, Lady Grizel might have 
found partial forgetfulness for her own troubles in 
trying to console him. But he, being a man, longed 
to be alone and away, and to have change of scene. 
So he went yachting to the Mediterranean, little 
guessing that the sister he dearly loved and left 
behind him carried a secret sorrow in her heart as 
heavy as his own. 

“ Men have the best of it ! ” thought Grizel, almost 
fiercely, pacing up and down her room with agitated 
steps. Love is all that is worth living for to us — a 
passing fancy to them. He has only cared for Guelda 
these few months ; but I — I all my life ; since I was 
a little tiny girl, I have given all my best love, my 
best thoughts to Ronald Airlie ! And yet a man 
can run away from his grief, and yacht, shoot big 
game, find excitement, and risk his life, somehow ; 
while we must control ourselves and smile to our 
fashionable friends, and live through the old society 
mill-round just the same as ever. Oh, it is madden- 
ing ! ” Then, after awhile, Lady Grizel said to her- 
self ; “ I will renounce the world and go into a sister- 
hood.” 

Six weeks after Islay had started for Australia, 
Grizel stood one afternoon in a bare room that was 
almost a cell, it was so barely furnished and blind- 
ingly whitewashed. A pile of letters lay on her 
table, for the time of her self-enforced seclusion was 
past. But only two had as yet been opened by her 
agitated fingers, and on the second she was staring 
with an expression of poignant, almost horror-stricken 
self-reproach. Both letters were from Ronald Airlie. 
The first was to say farewell — perhaps for ever — on 
leaving for the seat of war in Egypt ; and she had 
not known that ! The second contained but a few 
lines, written in haste : 


228 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

“ Dearest Grizel, 

“We are just going into action. It will 
most likely be a severe engagement. I beseech you, 
as this may possibly be my last earthly request, be 
a friend to Guelda Seaton. Save her, if Islay will 
not. Shield this unhappy girl from the dreadful fate 
you must have seen hinted at in the newspapers. I 
cannot bear to write more.” 

The letter bore a recent date. 

Grizel stood a little while as if transfixed. Then 
she caught at the pile of other letters, tossed many 
aside, tore open Islay’s letters, poor Guelda’s sad, old 
— now very old — appeal for help. All — all had the 
same refrain — “ If you were here, all would go well ! ” 
And she had stayed in her cell, doing penances for 
her own good, deaf to the prayers of those she loved. 

Sister Griselda had not yet taken any final vows. 
That next hour she left her seclusion, as borne on a 
whirlwind ; that very night she was in London inquir- 
ing for Guelda Seaton. All next day, and many 
more, she inquired — in vain ! 

Islay, in his last letter, written before starting for 
Australia, had briefly explained the circumstances of 
Guelda’s situation, and recommended her to his 
sister’s care. If happily the latter left her sisterhood, 
as he trusted and hoped, his lawyers would be able to 
give Guelda’s address. 

But Lady Grizel applied to them without result. 
Until a week ago Guelda had been supporting herself 
by singing at private parties. She was living in 
lodgings that, though very moderate, were clean and 
cheerful. The duke’s lawyers even believed her there 
still, for she had promised to keep in communication 
with them. * 

Grizel herself visited the rooms. A song was still 
propped open on the cottage piano that the poor girl 
had hired. Some trifles of work lay on the table, 
with a needle still sticking in one, as if recently flung 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


229 


down. All the people of the house could say was, 
that one day she had gone out for a walk as usual — 
but had not returned. 

No tiding had come of her. She had taken none 
of her clothes away. For the second time Guelda 
Seaton had vanished. But this time it was as utterly 
as if the earth had swallowed her up. 

When the certainty of Guelda’s disappearance 
became an incontestable fact, after days of hopeless 
searching and waiting for news, Lady Grizel s state of 
mind was one of sharpest self-searching, mingled with 
bitter reproach. 

“ What will Ronald say ? ” she would ask herself 
one minute ; the next, “ and Islay ? What will they 
both think of me ? ” She had seen with her own eyes 
how poorly Guelda had lately lived — had heard with 
her own ears that this was luxury compared to the 
desperate straits and persecution the lonely girl had 
endured, as Islay’s old and trusted lawyer told her. 
“ Miss Seaton was nearly starving ! ” he simply said, 
the duke having given him the bare outline of the 
girl’s first struggles alone in London. 

Heavens ! Guelda had been hungry from neces- 
sity, while Lady Grizel had been wilfully inflicting 
fasting on herself as a wholesome discipline, yet 
knowing all the while that food was within her reach 
should nature imperatively need it ! 

Though she had lain hard from choice, in the dis- 
tance the portals of Islay House had ever stood 
open, ready to welcome her back to the loving care 
that had always sheltered her from every rough 
blast — to ease and luxuries. Meanwhile Guelda was 
almost an outcast, desperately striving to maintain 
herself, in constant fear of losing what makes life 
sweetest — liberty — and that in the most frightful 
way. What a mockery Grizel’s late life now seemed 
to herself ! All the self-chastisement, the penitences 
Sister Griselda had lately endured, shrivelled to 


230 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


nothing before the deep repentance that over- 
whelmed her. She heaped ashes on her soul— she 
went inwardly in sack-cloth. 

To herself she lamented : “ I have been blind and 
deaf! Why did I fly to solitude the moment that 
my common share of human suffering was laid upon 
me ? Selfish — selfish ! I only thought of my miser- 
able self, and tried to find peace by shutting out the 
world’s noises from my ears. Now I have wakened 
up to find that I was wanted, but absent — that I have 
failed in the most simple duty of helping my neigh- 
bour ! And where is my peace of mind ? ” 

Truly, it was fled ; though perhaps the dull apathy 
that had settled down upon the late novice in her 
cell could not deserve the name of “ sweet peace.” 

Grizel had tried to humble her body as a sister ; 
now she was chastened to the recesses of her soul. 
Her thoughts were scourges as she pictured those 
she loved needing her in vain. Her red lip curled 
in contempt as she recalled with clearer mental 
vision her late life — the early rising and long hours 
spent over the wash-tub, or whole days when she, a 
duke’s daughter, had remained on her knees scrub- 
bing stone floors, and was proud to think she could 
so well forget her rank. She was not proud now. 

Still more scornfully, with angry recoil, Grizel 
thought of other livelong days spent sitting in a 
corner with her face to the wall, in a penance advised 
by the Mother Superior. 

“ Wasted time — wasted ! ” she now uttered in- 
wardly. 

It must be understood, however, that Grizel by no 
means judged the other sister’s devotion by her own 
mind experience. Those who risked their health, 
even lives, in nursing the poor — those who taught and 
toiled, having honestly and piously dedicated them- 
selves to such work, and who had no home-duties — 
she honoured most highly. Only she condemned 
herself for shirking pain under plea of seeking other 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 231 

burdens than those appointed her. True humility 
had begun to work in her mind like leaven, and she 
murmured low : 

“Peccavi !” 

On the very same day that she uselessly sought 
the lost girl she loved, Lady Grizel searched the late 
newspapers eagerly for an account of the battle 
anticipated by Ronald in his last letter. She found 
the account of a victory almost all in England ex- 
cepting herself had known days before. But, scan- 
ning the list of killed and wounded, she suffered a 
fresh pang on seeing the words : 

“ Captain Airlie, severely.” 

Airlie wounded ; Guelda missing ; Islay absent. 
This was the roll call of her best-loved. 

Even whilst in the first flush of her eager endea- 
vours to find Guelda while driving several times a 
day to the office of the duke’s lawyers, in hopes of 
news, and urging them with almost frantic zeal to 
every exertion possible, Lady Grizel found means to 
telegraph for news of Airlie. 

A battle raged in her own mind. Should she- en- 
deavour to go out as a hospital nurse to tend him ? 
He would not long for her hand to smooth his pillow. 
It would be hard to see him daily and know he was 
yearning for another. But yet, to her generous soul, 
the thought was sweet of restoring him by her means 
to Guelda. Alas, after inquiries her ladyship learnt 
that experience and training were indispensable. 
Otherwise, how many wives, sisters, and sweethearts 
would net implore leave to go and nurse their loved 
ones in time of war ? An answer came that Captain 
Airlie was no worse, though still in a critical state ; 
and with this message, that showed him hovering 
between life and death, Grizel had to satisfy her 
hungry, troubled heart. 

Still more painstaking she strove to find Guelda. 
The lost girl’s tall, lissom figure and glorious hair 
came back to her mental vision, the sweet face, and 


232 


THE FREAKS OE LADY FORTUNE. 


pleading eyes like brown jewels, with a warm glow 
in their depths that tried to win women’s liking as 
called Guelda’s “ woodland way.” How the vision of 
the “ lily maid,” as Islay termed her on that far-off 
night of the bail, seemed to rise before her friend’s 
memory in a vivid picture ! 

“I loved her at first; and then I was jealous. 
If only she is alive and is found, how I will try to 
make up to her for the past ! ” sighed Lady Grizel, 
who had indeed loved the lost girl with a loyal and 
fervent affection, far surpassing the “ vapid vegetable ” 
friendships of most women. 

She felt so useless, this warm-hearted, haughty, 
brown-complexioned daughter of the house of Islay ! 
Useless — and she who had till lately been so proud in 
secret of being known as inseparable from her 
brother, his right-hand, people said ! Though so 
young, she had not only been mistress of his princely 
homes in England and Scotland, but a leader of 
society, by virtue of her own force of character. 

“ If only some one needed me ! ” she lamented low 
in her heart. 

For Lady Grizel knew now that, to be truly happy, 
a woman wants not only love, but to be needed by 
some one. 

Grizel did not doubt there was at last three beings 
in the world who loved her second best ; but none of 
them had needed her. 

Or so she thought, and had retired to her cell. 
When the call came she failed to answer. Lastly, a 
flood of shame dyed her cheeks — somewhat pale 
during her period of seclusion — to a deeper crimson 
by far than even their old rich glow. She raised 
her patrician head in angry defiance at thought of 
the calumnious innuendoes against her friend that 
she, had she only known, could have averted. 

Then, in a storm of tears, she fell upon her knees 
and prayed, as she had never prayed before, that her 
worst fears might prove untrue— that Guelda might 


IHE FEEAKS OF LADY FOETUNE. 


253 


yet be alive, and saved from either having fallen into 
her uncle’s clutches, or from seeking to destroy herself 
in despair. 

“If she has been spirited away by this Lord 
Lyndon I will find her, though I should have to turn 
over every stone in England ! But, if she has com- 
mitted suicide — and it looks as if some slanders 
against her fair fame which Ronald has heard had 
been the last straw — then Heaven forgive me, for I 
shall never be able to forgive myself! ” ended Lady 
Grizel, in almost despair. 

What these slanders really were, that she feared 
had driven Guelda to the last .fatal step any human 
being can take on earth, she was yet to learn. 


234 


THE EREAKS OE' LADY flORTUNU. 


CHAPTER XXXI. 

When Islay sailed for Australia, six weeks before, 
Guelda had judged it wiser to leave his house, in 
spite of his wish that she should stay and be attended 
on by his servants and housekeeper. 

Once more she went into lodgings ; but this time 
she was pleasantly housed. Islay had insisted on 
lending her a small sum of money to start with, 
which Guelda hoped to repay soon by what she 
should earn from singing at private parties. 

This last was the suggestion of Sir Julian Inglis ; 
and the good old man made himself happily and 
fussily busy for a week in many drawing-rooms 
asking patronage and securing friendly offers of en- 
gagements for his young friend, “ the beauty of the 
last season.” How glad Guelda was to see the 
white-haired diplomatist again ! With what anxious 
eagerness she retold, and with what deep interest he 
listened to, the tale of which Islay had already given 
him the outlines ! No one else but Islay’s lawyer 
was to be in the secret of Guelda’s suspicions con- 
cerning Lord Lyndon. But Sir Julian was naturally 
sought out by Islay as a confidant, not only because, 
as Guelda’s old friend, he would be a protector for 
her during the duke’s absense, but also because he 
was one of the most wise and discreet of advisers in 
society. No man had been told more curious family 
secrets in his day; no man was more reticent in 
keeping them. 

Sir Julian considered, “matters looked just a little 
queer, certainly, for the new Lord Lyndon.” He 
thought, and hummed, and hesitated, perplexed. 

“ Of course, my dear girl, the man has behaved 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


235 


villainously to you ; but still, in my experience, real 
uncles have been known to do so. Strange about 
the will being lost too — very strange ; and you and 
your little brother left penniless — dear me — dear me ! 
Yet — if you will not think me a Goth for saying so 
— women’s imaginations are so quick, they do some- 
times run away with them. The real Robert Seaton 
might — mind, I only say might — have tampered with 
your grandfather’s will, and then hate you as people 
are apt to hate those they have injured. Then you 
showed dislike to him — suspicion. He thought of a 
terrible revenge. All this is only a too well-known 
tale without supposing him to be an impostor. Yet 
it is strange he refused to see me.” 

This last was the only point which Sir Julian 
seemed to regard as strong condemnatory evidence 
against the accused. Guelda only grew the more 
eloquent, however ; her fire waxed hotter the more 
her old friend heaped cautious objections upon the 
supposition she declared that she knew to be a 
certainty. 

“ How hard it is to convince men ! ” she cried. 
“You all look so coolly — so slowly — first on one side 
of the question and then on the other. That is fair 
enough ; but then you keep balancing the merits of 
both, though one is right and the other is wrong, till 
we feebler creatures grow quite confused with hearing 
you as to which is which.” 

“ Men, in fact, deliberate carefully, as you say,” — 
Sir Julian smiled; “but, once having made up our 
minds as to which is the right side, we keep to our 
opinion.” 

“ We feel which is right,” triumphantly asserted the 
young champion of her sex. 

Her old friend left her the last word, only mildly 
observing : 

“ Well, when Islay comes back we shall know for 
certain ; meanwhile it is best just to watch events 
quietly Don’t fight an enemy who is stronger than 


236 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


yourself till your allies are ready to back you up. 1 
wish that my doctors had not ordered me to the 
Riviera ; but they say I must avoid the spring east 
winds here. However, keep still — keep still.” 

In his heart he thought this noble young creature, 
whom he loyally admired, had been impulsive, and 
rashly jumped at a conclusion — most women did so ; 
but he was not certain. 

When Sir Julian left to sun himself by the olive- 
clad Mediterranean shore, Guelda missed his cheery 
visits and Islay’s kind voice. Though she had only 
had a few days of the society of both, those had 
been like gleams of sunshine from the old bright life, 
breaking her gloom. Nov/ she was solitary again ; 
yet how much better off than a little while ago ! No 
more haunting dread — no prospect of utter want ; 
for Islay had insisted that, in case of urgent need, 
she should apply to his lawyer, who had instructions 
to watch over her ; and Guelda promised, at his 
urgent desire, also to keep within call of these sound 
advisers, and to do nothing rash nor change her 
address without consulting them. 

The night came of Miss Seaton’s first party — not 
as a mere guest, but as an engaged drawing-room 
singer. It was at a house she had often visited last 
year with her grandfather ; and the hostess was a 
woman of such a kindly heart and gracious manner, 
that she received her young performer with no less 
warmth of welcome than eight months ago. 

“And where is the Duke of Islay, my dear? You 
know him so well, of course you can tell us, and we 
are all wondering what has become of him.” 

“ I am very sorry, but indeed I cannot tell you,” 
was the only answer Guelda could summon on the 
spur of the moment ; and she was inwardly ashamed 
of what seemed a fib, but she could not, because she 
dared not, tell, lest the report might reach the new 
Lord Lyndon’s ears. 

“ Gone to shoot big game, the papers say. Is that 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


237 


so?” persisted her hostess, ignoring Guelda’s dis- 
claimer ; for the latter had been so much “ talked of ” 
with Islay, it was really a matter of necessary know- 
ledge in society to find out whether he had quite 
dropped her or not ; and Airlie’s engagement had 
not been generally known. 

“ He is such a good shot. O, yes, I should think 
he will try for some ! ” vaguely replied poor Guelda. 

Her ease and self-control baffled the endeavours of 
the hostess, who rapidly concluded Islay’s affair was 
off ; indeed, one might have known as much, or the 
girl would never have gone out as a singer. She 
would have waited and tried her luck with Islay 
even after Lord Lyndon’s death. So, believing 
human nature was all alike where a duke was con- 
cerned, the good lady turned with bright inquiries to 
fresh arrivals. 

Many more well-known faces greeted the young 
singer. The fact of her having lost her promised 
fortune had been widely known, and excited much 
commiseration three months ago. The late beauty 
was accordingly most kindly welcomed. Yet the 
sympathetic sentences were often a little brief, for the 
kindly speakers were in a hurry to push their way 
through the crush to talk to these friends, or those 
new people, and settle coming parties or angle for 
invitations. They could not linger near the piano, 
where Guelda kept beside a few professional singers. 
Presently came the dreaded moment. 
i‘ Miss Seaton, would you kindly sing for us now ? ” 
Guelda’s heart beat — a mist seemed to swim before 
her eyes — a rush of blood throbbed in her ears. She 
hardly heard her own first notes ; but no one else 
heard much of them either in the hissing babel of 
sound the English language produces at a crowded 
party, when every one always seems trying to talk 
down the music. In a few moments, however, by a 
strong effort of pride, she had recovered her self- 
control, and found that a hush had fallen upon the 


238 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


crowd within a radius of some yards in her vicinity. 
Her thrush-like notes sounded suddenly full and clear 
now ; and the fat German gentleman whose fingers 
were compassionately lingering on the piano as* he 
accompanied the novice in her debut exchanged his 
spectacled glance of anxious fellow-feeling for an 
approving smile. 

At last it was over. A small crowd of Guelda’s 
last year admirers came up to offer warm congratu- 
lations. They did not know her late history ; and 
many inquiries were made as to whom she was 
staying with this season, and would she be at such 
and such a ball or party next week, Her known 
mourning accounted to their minds for not having 
seen her lately ; and they never noticed the poor 
simplicity of her black dress. All black was a good 
deal alike to them as men ; not so the girl’s glorious 
figure, the milk-white splendour of her neck and arms 
and the red-golden, small head that was erect and 
beautiful as ever. 

But the reply they received, though given with a 
composed, almost regal dignity for so young a woman 
seemed to startle most. 

“ I am living alone. No, I am not going out 
anywhere in society now ; except when, like to- 
night, people are good enough to engage me to 
sing.” 

Some of the foolish ones among her little court 
rapidly slipped away. All the others murmured con- 
dolences first, and then eager-voiced admiration of 
her pluck. They wished her heartily all success ; 
but, after lingering awhile, only one or two tried to 
outstay the others. They were the best ; at least 
two were so, men who felt truly for the orphan girl 
thus thrown on the world. The late lingerers felt 
likewise sincerely — not so deeply, that was all. 
“ And when there are so many people one must go 
and talk to, it would look odd to stay long beside 
Miss Seaton, poor girl!” they rapidly decided in 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 239 

their own minds ; candidly adding, " Last year it was 
different” 

Guelda sensibly knew it was different. Last year 
they had all flocked round the beauty — the heiress — 
and stayed. They would come now, because she 
was still as handsome, and that they really pitied 
her ; only she was no longer the fashion, the idol of 
the hour. Thus rapidly summing up the matter, with 
a smile of silent humour, the singer gave her calm 
attention to the three men who remained. Two she 
liked and trusted. Both had declared their attach- 
ment to her in “ the old days,” some months ago ; 
and it must have been a real feeling, since her fallen 
estate seemed only to make them more respectful 
now, with a pitying tone in their attentions she was 
aware of. One was a rich, somewhat elderly banker, 
grey-whiskered, thin-lipped, precise. The other a 
country gentleman, round-faced and florid of aspect, 
with a cheery voice. 

Yes, Guelda decided, she would not be in the least 
surprised if either or both proposed to her again. 
Having discovered she did not receive visitors, they 
had sedulously ascertained at what parties she was 
next engaged to sing. A woman might live a con- 
tented life with either, she dispassionately thought ; 
that is — some other woman. But to look at both, 
now. and to compare them with Ronald Airlie ! 

The third man was a rich French marquis. He 
was a last season’s admirer, too ; and was still un- 
changed in the gallantry of his compliments to the 
fair debutante , who had conquered the world of 
beauty last year, he declared, and, not satisfied with 
her triumphs, now wished to see the realm of art 
under her feet. But, somehow, the haughty young 
object of his flatteries shrank this night from the 
sugared look in his eyes, the whispered adulation of 
his voice. He had changed; she could not easily 
have described what gave her a disagreeable sensation, 
but she distrusted him. 


240 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


When Guelda had sung again, after the more strictly 
professional artists had performed, and when at last 
her three satellites had dropped one by one away, the 
fat German pianist approached the girl, and said, in 
a kindly whisper : 

“ I knew you well by zight last year, Miss Zeeton. 
Ah, yes — let me gongratulate you on to-night’s 
berformance. Belif me, ef you will only train for the 
stage, you might do very, very well.” 

Then, with large-hearted warmth, he offered the 
young novice help in teaching, that she gratefully and 
thankfully accepted. 

“ I cannot afford to pay for any lessons at present, 
Herr Schultz,” she had first said, however, with a 
modest blush, withdrawing a little. 

“Ach, that understands itself! Never mind; we 
must all help each other,” declared the big Teuton, 
heartily. “ You only sing now because beople who 
know you like to engage you. Soon you shall sing 
because beople who do not know you shall like to 
hear you.” 

Guelda was more glad of his words than of any 
others said to her that night. 

But yet she thought of the stage only to shrink 
from the idea of making it her future profession. It 
was not alone that the idea of becoming a slave to 
the public was distasteful to her who had hitherto 
lived almost as free and unfettered a life as a doe in 
the great forest where her young years had been 
nurtured ; nor that she dreaded the difficulties and 
dangers and jealousies threatening an unprotected 
girl like herself in such a career. She was brave, 
proud, and pure, and she had bowed her neck to 

necessity’s yoke before now. But What would 

Ronald say ? 


. THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


241 


CHAPTER XXXII. 

The next two parties at which Guelda was engaged 
to sing were a repetition of the first. 

Although her voice had received but little training, 
that was of the best ; for Lord Lyndon had spared 
no expense on his grand-daughter’s education, 
especially in music, and in compass and quality it 
deserved high praise. True, as the good German 
said, people at present asked Guelda to give her 
services partly out of liking and pity, and partly 
because there was a romance about her past and 
present history that made her talked of and looked 
at. She bid fair to become the “ fashion ” in this 
new role as in her last. But with time and teaching, 
and her courage and perseverance ; — “ She’ll make 
her mark,” decided the musical critics. “ Why, the 
girl has golden opportunities — what with her beauty 
and family and her history ! She ought to go on 
the stage. She would make her fortune in no time.” 

Many Belgravian dames discussed Miss Seaton’s 
prospects with head-shakings, however. 

“ Living alone — a girl of her good looks, for she is 
very pretty — it sounds rather a bold and quite extra- 
ordinary step for Lord Lyndon’s grand-daughter, does 
it not ? ” 

“ She is throwing away her chances, I’m afraid,” 
put in an amiable, ewe-like matron. “ Surely some 
one might have taken her out — given her a home. 
She would be certain to marry well.” 

“ She will marry better as she is, my dear,” replied 
an acid-minded neighbour. “ Depend upon it, she’ll 
go on the stage some day and make a hit or get 

1 6 


242 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


talked about — it doesn’t matter which. Then 
she’ll catch one of the great prizes — men are such 
fools.” 

“But Sir Julian Inglis says, there is positively not 
one living being to give her a home ; and she cannot 
get on with this new Lord Lyndon, who has been 
roaming the world incognito, like the people in 
Burke’s Vicissitudes of Families ,” urged one pitying 
voice. 

“ O, come — surely she could have found some one 
— some old governess or companion ! ” answered the 
chorus of voices. “It is rather a fast proceeding, 
when one comes to think of it. She could easily 
have found somebody, depend upon it ! ” 

All in vain might the innocent culprit have assured, 
them she knew no one. The summer friends of last 
year were these very judges who now passed sentence 
upon her conduct. An old governess — she knew 
none ; and how should she, as yet, afford to keep any 
one besides herself? 

Sir Julian had foreseen the danger, and implored 
three of these same lady patronesses, before he left, 
to try and settle some plan so that the poor girl 
should not live al6ne. Then his doctor hurried him 
away. Each of these fine ladies did her supposed 
duty, then, by kindly warning Guelda. 

“You ought to keep a duenna, my dear — some 
one quite cheap, you know. You ought to just give 
her board and lodging, and take her out when you 
walk.” • 

Their hearer widened her eyes, thinking how little 
they must know what it costs to keep another 
person : she, whose earnings hardly kept herself even 
with stint. 

“ Indeed, I would do so, only I cannot afford it,” 
she gently made answer, with a proud calm, sometimes 
mistaken for obstinacy. 

Each lady shrugged her shoulders, so to speak. 
“She seems to like being alone,” they agreed, not 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


243 


caring to believe her. After all, it was not their duty 
to find stray girls a home. 

The three admirers before spoken of were still as 
attentive as ever ; but the French Marquis took the 
lead. He contrived to keep the other two off by his 
assiduities, from which Guelda recoiled a little in 
troubled annoyance. Her Teuton friend alone came 
to her rescue. 

“That man — he is not very nice, eh ? You do not 
like him, I am glad to see,” whispered the fatherly 
pianist. “ See you leef alone ; and that is not good 
for a young lady like you. You cannot help yourself 
— I understand. But I will talk to my frau, and, 
though our house is not very big or fine, she would 
geef you a welcome from the heart, if you will come 
to us.” 

The tears rose suddenly to his pupil’s eyes at 
this unexpected kindness. She had to turn aside 
her head, lest her emotion should be noticed and 
excite wonder in that fashionable assemblage. All 
she could do was to slip her hand unperceived 
into her teacher’s great, loosely-gloved one, and 
murmur : 

“ If I will ? — You don’t know how gladly I would 
come ! ” 

But even while the matter was being talked over 
the following week between the worthy German 
couple, who were only waiting till another lodger in 
their house should have left to give this young 
orphaned creature the shelter of their roof, events 
happened which rendered their plan futile. 

Guelda was preparing to go to her fourth party 
when a note arrived saying, the Honourable Mrs. 
Blank regretted she was obliged to put off Miss 
Seaton’s engagement, but enclosed her a small cheque 
for her proposed kind services. Guelda simply 
supposed there would be perhaps dancing instead of 
music ; and, thinking with a sigh of the evenings at 
Islay Castle when she had danced with Ronald Airlie 


244 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


— O, that had been bliss ! — went with a calm mind 
the following night to another “at home.” 

Alas ! the poor girl came back to her solitary 
lodgings sick at heart, troubled, asking herself a 
hundred times in vain : What was the matter ? She 
only knew that few or none of her former acquaint- 
ances had noticed her ; many people she did not know 
looked at her askance, and she saw them whispering 
oddly. Her hostess seemed frigid and embarrassed. 
Neither of her two only trusted men-friends had been 
there — the banker and country squire. Only the 
French marquis came to talk to her, and that at first 
with a new easy air of familiarity, then of whispered 
insolence and with glances of admiration that paled 
Guelda’s cheek with proud anger as she turned upon 
him with a look — a word or two — of scathing scorn. 
He was abashed, murmured in haste an apparently 
contrite apology, and left her. After all, Guelda 
bitterly reflected, it was but the way of the world that 
she should be thus insulted. She expected little 
better from him ; but the others — all, all of them ! 

“ What have I done to be so treated ? ” uttered the 
poor young creature, once safe in her own little room, 
where her high spirit could give way to its wounded 
feelings unseen, unpitied. “They slighted me to- 
night — worse, they cut me ! ” 

The following morning brought three scented and 
coroneted, or handsomely monogramed missives. 
“ With regrets,” Miss Seaton’s services were politely 
declined for the next three and only engagements 
she had in prospect. One lady enclosed a cheque ; 
two apparently forgot to do so. As Guelda sat 
before her untasted breakfast, tears were swimming 
in her eyes, her heart was swelling with bitterness. 

“ What can it mean ? O, what can it mean ? ” she 
asked herself, uselessly, just as she had tortured her- 
self with questions through the night. She was too 
absorbed to hear a knock at theMoor before it softly 
opened, and the round florid visage of Herr Schultz 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


245 


appeared, smiling under his stubbly, blonde mous- 
tache, that was trimmed to resemble a scrubbing- 
brush. 

“ Ah, ah ! Late for our lesson dis morning,” he 
cheerily began, taking a roll of music from under his 
arm ; then immediately, with true concern, as his 
pupil raised her head, startled, not having time to 
hide traces of agitation on her face. “ Ach, Himmel 
— you are crying — you are in sorrow ! I was afraid 
of it!” 

“It is a mere nothing,” bravely answered Guelda, 
dashing away her tears and trying to smile at her 
friend. “ Only some letters. By the way — perhaps 
you can explain them. I am a little out of favour 
with these fine people, Heir Schultz, and my feelings 
were foolish enough to be hurt. O, it does not 
matter ! But can you tell me why it is ? ” She tried 
to speak carelessly and to drink down some coffee, 
though her throat felt rather hysterically swelled. 

Herr Schultz had not been at the party of the 
evening before ; a strange accompanyist had some- 
what blundered through his part in Guelda’s songs, 
helping to discompose her troubled nerves. Yet this 
being so, it was odd that no surprise, only pity showed 
themselves on the reddish countenance she looked to 
for sympathy. Herr Schultz stared hard at the 
letters, tried to shut tight his somewhat thick-lipped, 
good-humoured mouth. Then failing to control his 
feelings of wrathful pity, seeing the girl’s emotion still 
heaving within her breast, he burst out : 

“ I thought so ! It is all those — I beg your pardon 
— those confounded newsbapers ! ” 

“ I do not understand. Pray be kind enough to 
tell me what the newspapers have to say of me.” 
She had risen up now, and stood tall and straight as 
a rush ; a look of quiet determination to know some 
new trouble that was in store, and to face it 
courageously, expressed in her whole bearing. 

“You have not seen, then — no one has told you ? ” 


246 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“ I have seen and heard nothing, except some un- 
merited slights. If you can tell me their cause, Herr 
Schulz, you will be doing me a simple act of kindness 
and of justice,” 

With a reluctant sigh the big German dived in an 
inner pocket and produced some folded newspapers. 

“ I was afraid you might ask to see them, or I 
would not have kept the stupid things,” he said, 
apologetically. “ But do not mind what they say 
— not one word ” — eagerly. “ Those who are the 
beautifullest, and have most geist, have always 
enemies ; it is only the ugly or ” 

He ceased, seeing that his remarks fell on unheed- 
ing ears, only adding vehemently to himself a German 
expletive on those “ Society bapers.” 

Guelda carefully finished reading several paragraphs 
of so-called gossip. Now she understood. 

After allusions to the news of the Duke of Islay’s 
departure to shoot big game, already alluded to by 
their contemporaries, came little birds’ whispers that, 
as ever while the world lasts, the question might be 
put, Dov ’ e la donna — “Where is the fair lady?” 
Then came a hint that a certain beauty of last season, 
now deprived of the care of a venerable relative and 
of a prospective fortune, might not be unguessed at. 
A differently disguised slander followed in each case, 
though the outline was the same. That her smiles 
having been gained by the attentions of a handsome 
but penniless son of Mars, the fair one, on losing her 
fortune, had prudently rejected the latter and sought 
the protection of his richer and more powerful relative, 
under the shelter of whose bachelor roof she had been 
living. The very hasty journey of the favoured peer 
to foreign lands was construed, with a veiled sneer, 
into a struggle to regain his threatened liberty. The 
girl was pitied ; so young and beautiful, her fate 
might well have been a happier one. 

Guelda stood with a dull red glow on her cheeks, a 
smouldering light in her eyes. This was indeed a 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


247 


heavy blow ! To lose her engagements, hopes of 
fortune, renewed sunshine of content, however pale — 
all could be borne. But her good name ! 

Her next act was to sit down, and, with a firm 
hand, to write returning the money sent her for the 
parties at which she was not permitted to sing. 


243 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER XXXIII. 

A GREY February day in St James’s Park. 

Up and down Guelda Seaton was pacing by the 
edge of the pond ; a lonely slight figure in outline — 
more lonely in heart She only came out because 
Herr Schultz' had told her she ought to take fresh air 
and exercise, as he had also said she must eat and 
practise. It was a comfort to have one friend to 
please by such a simple act of obedience — a consola- 
tion when, whatever the world says, one other human 
creature and one’s own conscience still whispers : 
“ Don’t mind, while it is not true.” 

Sometimes Guelda vaguely wondered, still, who 
was the originator of the calumny that might ruin 
her future life, or at least take long to live down. 
Was it her enemy, her so-called uncle ? Perhaps ! 
Or might it only be some servant’s tale — gossip from 
the great Islay House lackeys, that had passed to 
other houses and lackeys till someone with as low a 
mind as they possessed had stooped to listen eagerly, 
and make a profit of the “ Odd Little Tale,” as one 
journal headed it. 

Guelda’s steps grew slower, and at last she paused 
with a sad heart and looked over the steely, grey 
water lying under the mysterious, leaden sky. The 
trees on the opposite side pleased her eyes to look at. 
How delicately the tracing of every branch and twig 
was outlined in soft sepia shading against the smoke- 
veiled horizon ! 

On the surface of the pond below her a solitary 
duck was swimming, leaving a rippling, widening 
angle behind its course. It was hastening to its com- 
panions, not liking being left alone. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


249 


A smile came on Guelda’s lips. “I do not like 
being alone either, little bird,” she said to herself. 
Yes, she felt very lonely. Her lovers and friends 
were far from her ; her acquaintances were hid out of 
her sight. It did not seem wrong to apply such 
sacred words to her sorrow and solitariness. A girl 
almost utterly alone in London, dependent upon her 
own exertions for bread — nay, on the kindness of 
poor Herr Schultz to procure her, he hoped, though 
with difficulty, some few and small engagements — 
surely she was very lonely ! Her little brother was 
all she had left to love, and think of, and care for in 
the world. He had pushed her roughly from him — 
preferred indulgences from a stranger to a dinner of 
herbs and love with her. Guelda forgave it all freely; 
the child knew no better. But now what had hap- 
pened to him ? “ O, Bino, Bino, where are you, and 

what is the matter ? ” she moaned in her heart. 

For, two nights ago, a strange thing had come to 
pass. Sitting alone in her lodgings, a music-page 
opened before her, her mind a blank, Guelda, looking 
up, saw her little brother not two yards off. The 
boy was looking at her beseechingly, his mouth par- 
tially open, as if he breathed with difficulty, his 
cheeks, though flushed, frightfully hollow, his black 
locks more elf-like than ever. “ Bertrand — you here ! ” 
gasped Guelda, trying to rise, yet somehow her lips 
faltered, her mind misgave her. Even as she doubt- 
ingly approached, the boy’s figure moved from her, 
slowly passed towards the window-curtains, and 
vanished behind them. When Guelda looked, there 
was no one there. 

Whether this might be a vision, or a trick of her 
senses, it had preyed on Guelda’s mind these two days. 
She had lately opened a correspondence with old 
Hillis, hoping to hear news of her little brother, and 
only a few days back learnt that Master Bertrand 
was suffering from a bad cough when he last passed 
through the village. Hillis had heard the boy had 


250 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


not been well all the winter ; but Lord Lyndon, his 
uncle, had taken him up to London, where probably 
Miss Seaton might contrive to see him. Guelda had 
hastened to Belgrave Square and waited near Lyndon 
House, hoping to see the little figure she longed to 
behold. All the blinds were down ; for hours no one 
came out. Plucking up courage at last, Guelda des- 
perately resolved to ring and inquire. A slow-footed 
caretaker, after a long time, answered the bell. 

“ No one was in town of the family. Not his 
lordship; no, nor Master Seaton. Didn’t know 
where Master Seaton might be, nor her ladyship.” 

“ Who is her ladyship ? ” wondered Guelda. Lord 
Lyndon had taken a villa somewhere near the 
Thames, the caretaker believed, and was sometimes 
there, sometimes in Paris. 

Guelda could nowhere glean more news. So now 
she walked in St. James’s Park, heavy in heart, and 
pondered. Could she do anything to find Bertrand ? 
She must — she must ! But what ? 

Turning at last, she suddenly gave a violent start ; 
for her enemy, her so-styled uncle, stood behind 
her. For a moment Guelda almost believed this was 
another hallucination. She raised her hand to her 
brow wonderingly. 

“ I hope I have not alarmed you ? ” said the voice ; 
the disagreeable, insinuating accents of which, with 
their mocking tone, she so hated. Surely so the 
serpent of old must have spoken. 

“ What about Bino? Is he ill ? How is he ? Re- 
member, he is my little brother. I am his nearest 
relation, and have a right to know the truth,” burst 
from Guelda, impulsively, off her guard from the 
shock. 

The man stared at her, taken aback. 

“ I came to tell you about him. It was by mere 
chance I found you here.” 

“ Then he is ill. Quick, quick — oh, if you have any 
pity, tell me ! ” 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


251 


" He is very ill — perhaps dying — and is calling for 
you. If you want to see him alive you must come 
with me at once.” 

“ With you —where to ? ” 

“To my house on the river. Are you afraid ? ” 

“No; I will go — I will go with you!” repeated 
Guelda Seaton, as she stood gazing searchingly into 
the face of the man who called himself her uncle ; 
who had played such a cruel part towards her. She 
tried to guess whether he was speaking truth or 
treachery. “ Of course I must go to Bino at once ; 
but I must first go back to my lodgings and leave the 
address of the place to which 1 am going, for my 
friends in London.” 

“ I thought you would wish that ; and half-an-hour 
ago you could have done it. Now — I only warn you 
— it may be too late.” 

“Too late?” echoed with a low tone. “What is 
it?” 

“ Small-pox. He took it the night before last, and 
began calling for you then. If we could have spotted 
you sooner ” 

“ Ah, the night before last — then it is true ! I 
knew it— I knew he was very ill before I saw you 
standing there. Which way are we to go ? Come on 
— come on quickly. This gate ? ” 

“ How the deuce could you know he was ill ? ” 
muttered his lordship, confounded, as he followed 
the girl fast, yet not quick enough for Guelda’s flying 
eagerness. “ It is quite true — you did guess rightly ; 
but how did you know ? Tell me — did Julie write ? ” 

“Julie? No! O, what does it matter! I saw 
him — there ! Call it a dream — what you like. He 
came to my room and stood beside me, looking so 
piteously — my poor little Bertrand ! — I knew he was 
ill and wanted me.” 

A strange, superstitious look came over the face 
of the man beside her. He edged a little away from 
his niece, the truth of whose belief in her own words 


252 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


could be recognised at once by her vivid tone and 
expression, and muttered uncomfortably to himself : 

“ Well, I’m dashed ! ” 

“ Here is the carriage,” he said, presently, as Guelda 
breathlessly hurried him out at the Buckingham Palace 
gate. Then, helping the girl into the coroneted 
landau she remembered so well — it had been chosen 
by her doting grandfather for herself last year, to 
drive with him in the Park — he gave the orders, 
“ Home — and go as hard as you can ! ” 

But few sentences were interchanged between 
uncle and niece, as they drove on and on, out of town 
by degrees, and into the suburbs. 

“ Could we not have gone quicker by train ? ” asked 
the girl, anxiously. 

“No; trains would not suit,” was the brief answer. 

The thought flashed across his young companion’s 
mind : Would it be less easy to trace herself by 
means of the carriage, should he have decoyed her 
away under false pretences, than had they gone by 
the Waterloo line ? In any case it was too late to 
alter that now ; so, with a philosophy dulled by grief 
and anxiety for her little brother, Guelda looked out 
of the window and mechanically noted the road they 
took ; it might be useful. 

Once or twice she asked some questions of the 
silent, brooding man at her side. 

“ When was Bertrand taken ill, and what were his 
symptoms ? What did the doctors say ? ” 

Then as Lyndon gruffly answered, she rejoined 
sharply : 

“What? — You say his lungs were previously 
attacked, and there is no knowing how short a time 
he may last. But when did the chest complaint 
show itself ? The boy was delicate, true, at Sheen ; 
but nothing more. Oh, if I had been by to take 
care of him still. And my mother left him under 
my charge when she died ! ” burst involuntarily from 
the girl’s lips in a tone of heartfelt anguish. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 253" 

“ Shut up — do ! ” sulkily exclaimed Lyndon, 
making an uneasy movement. “ Do you think I 
could be always cosseting and coddling the boy as 
you did. Jobling says he has such a delicate constitu- 
tion, his life never would have been worth a brass- 
farthing.” 

“ Jobling? Is he the only doctor you have had for 
my brother ? ” 

“ Yes,” almost shouted Lyndon ; sitting there 
beside her, he was evidently ashamed, and trying to 
lash himself into a rage to hide the feeling — “and a 
first-rate fellow he is. You can get a better if you 
like.” 

Then he sank back in his corner, pulled his hat 
over his eyes, and pretended to sleep, giving a furtive 
glance now and then, however, in Guelda’s direction. 
She sat bolt-upright, watchful and silent, her heart 
yearning to fly onward, to outstrip the speed of the 
horses which seemed to go so leisurely, though the 
handsome bays were flecked with foam. 

There was silence once more in the carriage. 


254 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER XXXIV. 

HALF-AN-HOUR had passed — an hour. Both windows 
of the landau were let down, and, as the shadows of 
the February evening thickened and mists rose damp 
and chill, Guelda grew cold to the marrow of her 
bones. 

All day the sun, when seen in London, had hung 
like a dull, red danger-signal dimly perceived through 
foggy vapour. Since they started on their drive it 
had not shown itself at all. 

Guelda shivered ; Lyndon roused himself. 

“ Are you cold — eh ? ” But he did not offer to pull 
up the windows. Then he suddenly inquired, in a 
low voice, yet with interest in its tone, “ Are you 
hungry ? When did you eat la9t ? ” 

Guelda had tasted nothing since her breakfast, 
except a light lunch of a piece of dry bread and a 
glass of milk. She did curtly own to feeling a little 
hungry — only a little — having a healthy girl’s 
appetite. 

Afterwards it struck her as curious that, notwith- 
standing the carefulness of the question, his lordship 
did not express one word of sympathy. A hard 
strange look came over his face, his eyes gleamed out 
at the landscape fixedly, and he nervously twitched 
at the long ends of his moustache. 

Nqw, they had some time ago left the London 
suburbs behind, and were driving through what one 
may call “ London by Thames.” 

Guelda did not know whether they were near 
Richmond or Chiswick ; bht she saw the wide grey 
river lapping its banks in a sullen high tide ; it had 
overflowed into low meadows on either side, where, 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


255 


over sheets of shallow water, a white thick mist was 
rising like smoke, and rolling away in misty shrouds, 
as it seemed to the girl’s morbid imagination. Part 
of the road had been under water during the heavy 
rains lately, and the smell of rotting vegetation rose 
up disagreeably on the evening breeze. 

“ How could Bertrand get well here ? No chance ! ” 
thought the boy’s sister, with a dull despair she took 
for resignation. 

The carriage stopped before a rustic gate set in a 
garden fence. 

“ Here you are. Will you get out ?” said Lyndon, 
hoarsely, as if the cold air had affected his throat. 

Guelda, being on the side of the gate, eagerly 
alighted, and only then perceived that her companion 
was again closing the carriage-door upon himself. 

“ I must go back to Town — important business,” 
he hastily said, putting out his head. “ Open the 
gate and go in. That’s the house. You’ll find the 
boy downstairs at the back. Tell Julie to order all 
you want. Hi, drive to Town again — d’ye hear, look 
sharp ! ” 

As this last hastily-given direction was being 
shouted to the servants on the box, a slatternly 
servant-girl ran out from a smaller side-gate, appa- 
rently leading from some kitchen premises. 

“ My lord — wait, my lord — only listen ! Master 

Bertrand ” she cried, clutching the carriage- 

window. 

“ Be- off, will you ! Do you want to bring your 
infection to me out here ? ” screamed Lyndon, rattling 
up the glass so that the girl’s fingers were nearly 
nipped, while he uttered a passionate oath. 

Another shout to the coachman. The horses were 
whipped up ; and as Guelda, who already stood inside 
the gate, gave a hasty glance backward, she saw a 
pale face thrust out of the carriage-window gazing 
after her with such a cold cruelly triumphant, yet a 
curiously frightened look, that she stood still a 


256 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


moment appalled. Lyndon, as their eyes met, hastily 
pulled in his head. 

Guelda, recalled to the present by the servant’s 
cry of “ Master Bertrand,” flew up a gravelled path 
towards the house. 

It was a dreary-looking, tall and narrow house, 
built of brick that had grown black with time, or 
mouldered away in parts. Narrow windows — two on 
each side of the door, five above, and five still higher 
— stared at Guelda with their small-paned eyes. No 
blinds or muslin draperies to be seen inside — no paint 
outside on the weather-worn sashes. 

The river-damp seemed to cling about the old 
house with a persistence it seemed as if no summer 
sun would ever dry ; and all about the sooty mil- 
dewed house shot up a close and rank growth of shrub- 
bery, of yew-tree and magnolia, in strange contrast. 

Breathless, Guelda rang a rusty bell. No answer ; 
whilst she could hear the throbs of her beating heart 
— it seemed thrice sixty seconds. Again she sent 
clanging echoes through the dismal area ; but no 
voices were heard — no footsteps came. In despair 
she tried the door-handle ; but it would not turn. 
The maid had disappeared into the area precincts. 

Perceiving two wooden steps leading up to the 
farthest window on one side, Guelda hastened thither, 
and pushing the sash found it was unlatched and 
could be raised. 

Next instant she stood inside a bare-floored, stiff- 
looking saloon. Some chairs were stacked in a 
corner ; a chandelier was tied up in yellow muslin ; 
three pastels of powdered shepherdesses simpered on 
the walls. The doorfled into another room where the 
shutters were closed, though the dim light showed a 
dining-table still heaped with the remains of dessert, 
with wine- decanters and champagne-bottles, napkins 
and some broken glasses, the whole in strange con- 
fusion, as if some unwelcome news had suddenly 
startled the carousers. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 2E7 

Stumbling onwards, Guelda found herself in the 
empty Tiall. Opening this door and that in tremulous 
haste — first a coat-closet, next an empty bed- room, 
seemingly Lyndon’s own — a faint sound like a moan 
fell on the girl’s ear. Yes — a moan, no doubt. 
Guided by the sound, Guelda sprang forward towards 
a room apparently built out alone behind the stairs. 

The sight that met her eyes as she entered was so 
pitiful, her heart seemed to rise up inside her with 
horror and indignant disgust. In a second’s glance, 
Guelda seemed to take in the whole scene — that was 
impressed while she should live on her brain. A chill 
small room, the damp .blurred windows of which 
looked on the river that had submerged the garden 
outside and risen within a few yards of the house ; a 
wretched fireplace where a fire had been unsuccess- 
fully lighted, leaving only smoke lingering in the 
sick-room ; squalid furniture of a few “ odd pieces,” 
gathered apparently from the attics ; and, on a small 
iron bedstead, a tossing little figure moaning — 
moaning. . 

“ Bino — Bino dear ! ” said Guelda, very softly, 
kneeling beside the cot. 

The boy turned, and at the white mask’s head 
that -was presented to her view Guelda with difficulty 
repressed a start and outcry. Then she rapidly 
understood — his face was covered with a layer of 
some thick white mixture, by the doctor’s orders, to 
exclude the air from the small-pox pustules and ease 
their intolerable itching. 

“ Guelda, is that you ? I thought you were never 
coming ! ” were the little sufferer’s first words, in 
accents of no surprise, but of impatient pain. 
“ Guelda, my eyes are sore — I can’t see well ; and I 
am so thirsty — so thirsty ! ” 

“ Yes, my dear — I am very sorry I was so slow 
coming, but I could not help it,” was the sister’s 
soothingly-murmured reply, turning her head to hide 
her own tears, that would keep rising in spite of her 

17 


258 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


strong will. “ Now, let me smooth your pillow and 
turn it. There, that is more comfortable — isn’t it ? 
And I will go and get you something to drink 
directly.” 

“ I am so thirsty — so thirsty 1 ” still repeated the 
boy’s parched lips with difficulty. 

One glance round. There was nothing placed on 
the sick-room table for relief or cure, but a glass half 
full of nauseous-looking medicine. 

“ One minute, dear. I won’t keep you waiting 
any longer than I can help. I am going to get you 
something nice to drink.” 

Guelda flew downstairs in the direction of the 
kitchen, and opening the right door by chance saw a 
fire nearly dead and a figure crouched by it in 
apparent apathy, while a sound of sobbing came from 
the scullery near. 

“ Can I get some hot water for my brother upstairs ? 
I am Miss Seaton. Your master brought me here. 
Listen to me, please — do you hear ? ” — and Guelda 
put her hand imperiously on the shoulder of the 
silent figure. The latter turned and looked up, as if 
hardly rousing from some overpowering stupor. 

“Julie — is it you? Why do you look so strange ? 
Don’t you know me? Have you no heart, that you 
could leave the child alone like this — perhaps for 
hours? * He is thirsty — he may be dying. Rouse up 
and help me ! ” 

“ Oil est il ? ” came in slow reply. “ Where is he ? 
Ah, is it you, mademoiselle.^ But I am left alone — 
all alone here! Poor Julie ! He is gone away.” 

“ He is not gone away — he is lying upstairs, poor 
Master Bertrand ! What is the matter with you, 
Julie ? ” returned Guelda, affrighted. 

“ Bah — the boy ! I want him, I tell you — my 
husband ! I will follow him — I will never give him 
up ! He thinks he has got rid of me, the villain — the 
hard-hearted, miserable wretch! No — no — no — no! 
I see through his plans ! He thinks to leave me here 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 259 

to die of small-pox too, and set him free, just as he 
inveigled you here to nurse your little brother and 
die. Cest bien ! It may be your duty — I don’t say 
it isji’t — but it is not mine. He shall not escape 
himself to London, and laugh to think he is living 
there safe and well while we are rotting away in this 
vile swamp. He shall give me my rights, I tell you 
— my rights ! I have done too much for his sake 
already ; now he must do something for me. It is 
time ! ” 

Uttering these words with a frightful effort of 
volubility, as if her reason ‘was affected, a smouldering 
fire burning in her dark eyes that yet seemed glazed 
by the torpor lately upon her, from which she had 
roused herself with difficulty, Julie now got up, and 
hastily, but with unsteady gait, made for the door. 

Her former young mistress gave a look of dis- 
may after the woman whom she heard stumbling 
upstairs. 

“ Is she ill, or — or can she be tipsy ? ” said Guelda 
aloud, seeing a servant-girl’s face — the same who had 
called to her master in vain — peeping in from the 
scullery whence had come the sounds of sobbing. 

It was no time to pick words, with the master gone, 
a boy ill — perhaps dying — upstairs, and this plague- 
stricken house seemingly deserted of all but two 
servants; she must find out at once the whole 
situation. 

“ O, Miss Seaton, I am glad to see you ? ” cried the 
little kitchen-maid, in accents of almost unbelieving 
joy, coming forward and showing a tear-blurred face. 
“Don’t you remember me — Annie Tothill, in the 
Sunday-school at Sheen — and you gave me a prize ? 
And I was one of the girl-singers in your harvest- 
revels, and then I was engaged last winter to be under 
the cook at the Abbey ; but his lordship swore at the 
cook and sent her away in a passion when we came 
here ; for indeed she said, being a respectable woman, 
she could not stand the goings-on, and she wouldn't 

T'7* 


260 


TIIE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


call Mademoiselle Julie miladi. ... O, Miss Seaton, 
it’s awfurhere ! ” 

“Calm yourself, Annie. I am very glad to see a 
friendly face. Listen — will you help me now to get 
some barley-water for Master Bertrand? I found 
him so ill, and all alone ! ” 

“ I’ll make it this instant ! ” — and Annie dived at a 
little saucepan. 

Guelda had already found some hot water, and 
even as she spoke was preparing some weak tea 
and dry toast, to alleviate the little sufferer’s first 
wants. 

Before half-an-hour was over Bino, after being well 
attended to, was slightly easier, and Guelda had 
heard all the circumstances of his illness, besides 
much else that had passed in the household, from the 
irrepressible Annie, whose heart seemed bursting to 
outpour its long-pent feelings. 

“ I was crying my eyes out for ‘poor little Master 
Bertrand when you came in,” she said artlessly. “ I 
ran out on hearing his lordship’s carriage, to tell him 
that since he went away two nights ago — that was the 
very night Doctor Jobling told him after dinner that 
the child had small-pox — why, all the servants left 
the house too, but me and Mamsel Julie. They said 
they would not wait any more than himself to take 
infection ; and they had been paid their wages only 
two days before — on the first of the month — so they 
didn’t care. But, O, if you please, Miss Seaton, 
there’s such a lot of things missing — silver, and I 
don’t know what — and whatever will his lordship say 
with only me in the house left ? But how could I 
stop the men-servants ? ” 

“How indeed, Annie? Btit surely Julie was in 
charge ? ” 

Annie gave her young lady a curiously significant 
look. 

Things seemed to have gone wrong with Ma’mselle’s 
temper lately, she explained, with some reserve, His 


THE FREAKS OF LADT FORTUNE 


261 


lordship quarrelled with her and swore at her very 
much. Was she kind to Master Bertrand ? Well, 
yes, after a fashion — kind one minute and would slap 
him the next. The poor child was so neglected or 
wrongly indulged, it made Annie’s heart sore to see_ 
him — being herself the eldest of seven children, and 
used to nursing the other six ever since her motherly 
small arms could grasp a baby’s waist. But when 
his lordship hurried away, he promised to send for 
Julie next day. He had not done so. 

“ Then she took to drink to console herself,” 
whispered Annie, staring with solemn eyes. “ Whilst 
Julie was stupefied, the other servants just made 
almost a clear sweep of the house and absconded. 
No one has come near the house since but Doctor 
Jobling, once a day. Even the tradespeople won’t 
send, for they are grumbling because their bills are 
not paid. So I was in despair when I heard the 
carnage ; but I ran, hoping his lordship was coming 
back to set things right. Then my heart seemed 
breaking when he turned to abandon that poor boy, 
as I thought ; and I never saw you going up to the 
front door, like a blessed angel from heaven,” babbled 
on the brave little maid, who had never once thought 
of flying from such fatal disease herself. “ But, 
please, Miss Seaton, do you not think Julie is taking 
the small-pox herself? Did you notice how flushed 
her face was, and she seemed bent in pain and 
feverish ; just the way he was took bad ? ” 

“Yes, Annie — yes. Where is Julie? We had 
better go and see how she is.” 

This last talk took place about an hour after 
Guelda’s arrival ; and while the girls, gentle and 
simple, were working hard to get the chaos in the 
house reduced to some kind of order for present 
needs. 

But, on looking in Julie’s room, she was gone l — 
gone with her very smartest bonnet and jacket, but 
in haste, leaving her room strewn in wild disorder. 


262 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

They two were left utterly alone with the sick boy in 
the house. 

“ We must do our best. With Heaven’s blessing 
we may save his life, if you will stand by me, Annie/’ 
uttered Guelda, bravely, with that last courage of 
despair which looks death in the face, but means to 
wrestle with him for a beloved one’s life. 

Without money, without help or comforts, it was 
indeed a melancholy plight. 

“ I’ll not forsake you ; all I can do is only just my 
duty,” answered the little maiden, simply, with uncon- 
scious heroism. 

And both kept their word. That night poor 
Bertrand was already carried into his uncle’s deserted 
bed-room, where a good fire burned, and the slightly- 
opened windows let in fresh air. There were cooling- 
draughts ready on the table. Guelda was near his 
pillow. 

Order once more reigned in Annie’s kitchen, where 
also a supply of the necessaries of life had again re- 
plenished her empty cupboards. For, following 
Guelda’s example to take heart, Annie had made a 
hurried visit to the village near, where her recital of 
how the sick-house was abandoned so far touched the 
tradespeople’s good feelings that some supplies were 
promptly sent — more might be hoped for. 

“ Ah, there’s kindness in the world when you seem 
to have least right to expect it — and their accounts 
never paid ! ” triumphantly soliloquised Annie. “You 
see, Miss Seaton, the help is coming from Heaven. I 
was all alone except for Julie yesterday; now you 
are here, and I am feeling quite light-hearted.” 

True ; but as .Guelda herself gazed that midnight 
at the dark sky she was far from light in heart, though 
she trusted — she did trust that help would be sent to 
them, forlorn young creatures as they were. And she 
prayed that strength might be given to herself to bear 
up, even should her little brother be taken from her. 

“ He is all I have left to care for ! ” she murmured, 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


263 


pressing her brow against the window, while in the 
background the boy’s heavy breathing, as he moaned 
and tossed in fevered sleep, was a constant pain to 
the sister’s ear. All she had left ! The plaything of 
her early years — the charge left to the child-sister by 
a dying mother — Guelda’s care and alike her gladness 
during those past days of toil, yet happiness, under 
the green oak-trees of the forest. Later, how her 
heart had been wrung by him — no matter now ! 
Then came her hopes and schemes to redeem ''her 
boy’s inheritance. How idle they seemed ! What 
mattered house, lands, title in comparison with life ? 

“ There is surely a curse on Sheen Abbey since it 
passed from its rightful owner to our family ! ” Guelda 
sighed. “ Where is he to-night, I wonder ? Does he 
think of me ? ” 


264 


THE i BEAKS OF LADY FOBTUNE. 


CHAPTER XXXV. 

Where indeed was Ronald Airlie that midnight as 
Guelda stood by the dark window of the room in 
which her little brother lay perhaps dying, and prayed 
for her lover’s safety ? 

In his General’s tent, thinking of her, penning a 
hasty letter, which a returning messenger had pro- 
mised to take — it might be the last he should ever 
write — imploring the only woman he now trusted on 
earth to save her he had loved. Had loved? Nay 
did ! There was the gall and wormwood in his cup 
of inexpressible bitterness. In spite of her degrada- 
tion, his fallen idol, though shattered, could not be 
replaced by another — was still the one woman on 
earth for him. He could not hate the man either 
whom he believed had so grievously wronged him — ■ 
Islay, his more than brother. 

So, while Guelda prayed that he might be guarded 
from bullet and spear -thrust, that some day she 
might yet see him ‘once more — if only once ! ’ he was 
hastening, with what terrible different thoughts of her, 
to face death had she but known it ! 

Far, far away a great column of camels was mov- 
ing on, swift and stealthy-footed, throwing a long 
shadow over the moon-lit desert For miles around 
lay a reddish gravelly plain under the moon’s rays, 
only relieved in its barren monotony by some sparse 
grass and a few mimosa-bushes. The dark forms 
huddled on the camel’s backs in indistinct outline 
were strange riders in such a scene. No Arabs they, 
but simple Kentish, or Devon, or Y orkshire-bred men, 
or it may be that Scotland’s mountains or Ireland’s 
green pastures were the scenes their eyes first knew. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


265 


Near the head of the column rode Ronald Airlie, 
silently star-gazing. Venus and the Southern Cross, 
Orion and the Great Bear, stared back at him — new 
friends and old. A cold wind chilled him through 
and through, for, while all around him wore their 
heavy military coats, he had left his to cover more 
warmly a sick friend. 

“ No matter ! To-morrow I shall be hot enough 
and to spare with the burning heat reflected up from 
this desert — that is to say, if I live through the day,” 
he grimly reflected. His heart was colder still — 
what should warm it ? It seemed dead within him ; 
little matter if his body died too. At times a thought 
of pain clenched the man’s teeth, an angry light 
glittered in his eyes. That such shameful words 
should be uttered of her — Guelda ! False or true ? — 
oh heaven ! Even if true, he longed to force them 
down the throat of the dastards who dared to spread 
the dishonour. 

“ She was so pure, so beautiful, so good ! ” he mur- 
mured, with a sob strangled in his throat. 

Now the column was moving through a different 
country, where grew tall savas-grass and thorny 
scrub. Dawn was nearing, and all were wearied after 
the heavy night march, following; on the sharp fight- 
ing and privations of the foregoing days. A strange 
continuous roar went up from the tired camels, no 
longer silent, and their angry native drivers. The 
noise could be heard miles away, and the enemy 
was behind yonder low hills. 

The fierce glare of day had come at last ! — beating 
down scorchingly on the column formed "in a little 
square. The square was moving towards a valley, 
midway down which gay pennons were fluttering in 
front of a great mass of dark spearman. From the 
centre of this force, which surely could close round 
and overwhelm by numbers yonder small living 
quadrangle, came the sound of war-drums humming 
in the air. 


266 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


Suddenly the banners advanced, borne by the 
sheikhs on horseback. Like a triple phalanx, with 
torrent force the whole dark mass hurled itself 
upon the little square. A roar of fire answered 
steady defiance. The wave of onslaught seemed to 
pause, to scatter and slowly retreat. The place 
where it broke could be traced by a high-heaped 
crest of dead or dying men. They were beaten ! 

No, by heavens ! — They had only moved to take 
up fresh ground, and in a few minutes — it seemed 
even less — they had thrown themselves again, with 
almost irresistible shock of numbers, upon the rear of 
that small, close-formed band which stood shoulder to 
shoulder. 

What had happened ? That wild cry ! The 
square had given way at yonder weak spot. They 
were ini 

In as quiet a voice as if the Guards were on parade 
for a Queen’s birthday in London, Airlie spoke to 
his men. Steadily he was obeyed ; another second or 
two, and they were in the thick of a desperate hand- 
to-hand conflict with the strong dusky Arabs of the 
desert. Jammed rifles were useless against the 
spears. Here a British soldier flung his gun down, 
with bitter curses upon the weak weapon, and bit the 
dust, butchered, unable to defend himself. There 
another gave quarter to a wounded foe, thrust 
through with bayonets, who writhed upward from the 
ground to strike a deadly blow in answering treachery 
and die with a smile, believing himself secure of 
Paradise by that Christian’s soul despatched before 
his own. All around were sickening sights and 
sounds of carnage, such as modern civilized warfare 
seldom knows. But, with men’s blood at boiling- 
point, it all seemed as natural as the most bloody 
and horrible fights of Greek or Roman days. 

A young Emir — a noble figure — was foremost of 
all to ride into the square, bearing his banner and 
chanting his prayers. His horse was shot, and fell 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. £87 

dead under him ; but, himself unhurt, he struggled 
forward to attack Ronald Airlie, whom his quick 
eye had singled out as the bravest foeman there. 
Behind the Arab chief thronged a swarm of fierce 
swarthy visages lit up by fanaticism’s light. For the 
moment Airlie was alone, separated from his com- 
rades. The Emir’s spear had grazed his side, making 
a long flesh-wound ; but with his left hand Airlie had 
grasped it and run the Emir through the body with 
his sword. 

For a few perceptible seconds both men stood thus. 
The Arab was transfixed ; his English foeman could 
not withdraw his weapon. 

Then, with a ringing cheer, some of the Guards 
rushed forward to the defence of their officer, and 
bore back the press of the Arabs. A last gallant 
effort, and the square was freed once more ; the 
enemy was in retreat. But that night and for many 
more Ronald Airlie lay helpless from his wound and 
with fever in the zerebah. 


2C8 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER XXXVI. 

“YES, he is better, Dr. Jobling. But, ah, what a 
poor feeble word ‘ better ’ means with him — my little 
Bertrand ! Nevertheless, weak though he is, we owe 
his recovery to you ; and I thank you for your care 
and help with my whole heart ! ” 

“You — you overpower me, Miss Seaton! — I — ’pon 
my honour, I did awfully little — my best, of course ; 
but a fellow like me, who has been going to the 
deuce — I beg your pardon ! — for months back gets 
out of practice. Anything I could do would not 
make up for — O, dash it all ! the. whole business has 
been a sinful shame from the beginning, and I am 
sorry from my heart I ever was in it ! ” 

The time was a month later than the events 
recorded in the previous chapter. The days of 
miracles seemed hardly past when Guelda Seaton and 
the sporting country doctor were thus addressing each 
other almost as friends — certainly with gratitude on 
the one side, heartfelt contrition, though expressed in 
stammering tones and little blushes of confusion, on 
the other. 

For Jobling, who was staying with some jovial 
spirits in the neighbourhood — being slightly out of 
favour with his quarrelsome patron, Lyndon, so think- 
ing it better to absent himself from the riverside 
house for a while — had looked in, the day after 
Guelda’s arrival, “just to see how the boy was getting 
on.” He was a little sore, to tell the truth, at not 
finding his services called in as Lyndon’s “ family 
doctor.” No doubt Lyndon had got down some 
London swell, he said loudly, when his friends chaffed 
him on the subject. Still, for the sake of appear- 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 269 

ances, the . poor wretch, who was badly in want 
of a sovereign or two, made his awkward visit ; 
hoping to be either employed under the supposed 
swell, or to have it believed he was so. His horror 
in finding the little boy, whom he looked on as 
a favourite plaything, utterly abandoned by Lord 
Lyndon, was genuine. 

Guelda, bending by her brother’s pillow, struck 
him — “all of a heap,” as he expressed it — as the 
most beautiful sight his eyes had ever rested on. 
Jobling had never seen Miss Seaton before; from 
that moment he worshipped her. Night and day he 
devoted himself to “pulling little Bertrand through,” 
without thought of reward except a look or a word 
of thanks from the beautiful girl, which would set 
his foolish heart thumping inside his waistcoat. 

After all, he was a weak but not a bad -hearted 
fellow. Heavens ! he thought to himself with dismay, 
that he could ever have been almost persuaded by 
Lyndon to be prepared to certify that such a glorious 
young Venus was of unsound mind ! He trusted 
devoutly she did not guess it. 

“ What a mercy of Providence that you did not take 
the infection, Miss Seaton ? ” he said, humbly. 

“Yes,” was the absent rejoinder; “and I was so 
cold and hungry after my long drive, too.” 

“A drive! How was that? Why did you not 
come by train ? ” 

“ I cannot tell you why Lord Lyndon made me 
drive all the way — it tired me a good deal.” 

“ Did he know you were cold — you were hungry 
— tired ? ” asked Jobling, with almost startling 
keenness. 

Then, as Guelda answered in the affirmative, the 
young fellow’s pale and puffy features lit up with 
honest rage as he exclaimed : 

“ The villain — I remember now ! I have done 
with him — I wash my hands of him ! ” 

“What do you mean, Dr. Jobling? Pray explain 


270 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

yourself! I must go to Bertrand soon ; I have been 
away a quarter-of-an-hour, and he will miss me.” 

“ Why, I mean this, Miss Seaton — that your uncle 
is a fiend — there ! The very evening I first told him 
it was small-pox, when he bolted from the house, he 
asked me what was the best way to avoid taking it. 
So, thinking he was in a blue fright, I told him if 
anyone was exhausted, or wanted food, or was low, 
as he’d never be, why ten to one they’d take it, but 
otherwise nobody need be so mortally afraid.” 

“ I have no doubt you are right — he hoped I should 
be the next victim,” said Guelda, with a pale smile. 
“ Both Bertrand and I are in his path, I have long 
feared.” 

However, little Bertrand was still living after the 
worst of his illness and a relapse that was almost as 
dangerous — only his sister’s devoted nursing had 
saved him so far. But as he lay on the sofa, a 
shrunken shadow of his former puny self, his large 
black eyes constantly following his sister, as she 
moved about the room, he was as fragile as the pale 
spring flowers now pushing up in the garden borders. 
Jobling and Annie looked at him and privately shook 
their heads, knowing that an east wind or the least 
shock must nip his tender life very soon — he could 
not last long. Guelda knew it too, but fought away 
the thought. Time enough to grieve when it must 
be so. Till then she could still soothe and cherish 
the ailing little brother, who had in truth, though she 
would never have owned it, given her far more care 
and anxiety than pleasure in his short life. 

Often the little fellow’s mind wandered. Then 
he babbled of the happy days when they lived in 
the tumble-down cottage together — of rambling hand 
in hand with his sister in the forest — of the trees 
and the mossy paths — the birds’-nests and wild 
flowers. 

“We will go back together and see the forest again 
some day, Bertrand,” once said Guelda tenderly, 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


271 


when his mind seemed clearer. Perhaps he might 
live long enough to have that pleasure — perhaps. 

“I don’t know— I feel so tired,” said the little 
fellow, languidly. “ Why don’t you call me Bino, as 
you used ? ” 

" I thought you did not like that childish name, 
dear.” 

The great dark eyes wandered with a look of 
trouble to Guelda’s face. 

“ That was in my bad days, when I was so unkind 
to you,” murmured the boy. “ O, Guelda, I wanted 
you so much when you went away ! But now he’s 
gone, and we will be friends again, won’t we ? ” 

“ Yes, indeed, my poor little Bino ! ” 

It was a sweet reconciliation to the sister’s heart, 
though late. 

Then came a day, after nearly five weeks of 
anxiety, when Guelda felt a sense of blessed relief, 
however slight. She began to ask herself where she 
had best take the sick boy. “ He may be better 
away from here. Dr. Jobling says change is the only 
chance,” she said to herself ; then sighed. The day 
before she had written for the first time to Islay’s 
lawyers, asking for help out of the sum placed in their 
hands at her service when wanted. No use thinking 
of pride. She must think of her little brother now, 
not herself alone, while his life lasted. 


A noise below stairs ! a man’s voice speaking 
loudly ; a blast of cold air that made the sick child 
shiver ; and Annie’s voice seemingly raised in plead- 
ing entreaty. Then the door of Bertrand’s room was 
roughly pushed open, and Lyndon stood on the 
threshold. 

“Well, old boy — so you’re better, eh?” he said, 
only bestowing a nod of recognition on Guelda. 
“ Disinfected and all that ? Well, brisk up and look 
sharp ! I’ve come to take you straight away with me. 


272 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


You’ll like that. You want a bit of rousing and 
some jollity — no more gruel from sister.” 

“ You shall not take Bertrand away. I am his 
nearest relative, and he wishes to stay with me,” said 
G.uelda quietly, as she stepped between the intruder 
and the sofa on which the little invalid, lay. 

The boy gave a frightened whimper as Lyndon 
spoke, but never answered, his black large eyes 
staring with a helpless fascinated look at the man 
above him. 

“ Shall not ? Do you dare to try and step again 
between me and him?” retorted Lyndon, turning on 
the girl. His sallow-complexioned face looked more 
pale than ever, there was a harder setting about his 
square jaws, and his shifting eyes had a more defiant 
glance of unconcealed suspicion — or was it hatred? 
“ What right have you to interfere? If I turned you both 
out now you might lie in the ditch ; and I will too, if 
you say another word ; Rights indeed ! Who would 
back you up in having any rights over your young 
brother ? — you, who have disgraced your own 
name ! ” 

“ Shut up, you villain — I’ll back her ! ” came in a 
thin excited treble from behind ; and, to his patron’s 
astonished wrath, Jobling stood glaring weak-eyed 
rebellion. “ I’m ready to certify, if you touch that 
boy it’s at the risk of his life ; and I’m his doctor, and 
I refuse to allow it.” 

“ You, you ninny — you wretched white-livered 
toady! You’ve been living on my scraps like a 
beggar for months, and now you dare to cross me ? ” 
uttered Lyndon in fury. 

“ O, Guelda, Guelda, keep me from him — keep me 
with you ! ” cried Bertrand’s weak, small voice, 
agonised with terror. 

Guelda had sprung to her little brother’s side to 
shield him from their enemy, and stood upright, 
passionately, beautifully defiant. 

“ Stand back — you shall not touch the boy ! ” she 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 273 

cried, guarding Bino with her body, while her face, 
desperately set, was turned to Lyndon. “ Doctor 
Jobling, keep him off! ” came from her lips, in a 
gasp of almost soundless despair ; for, if nothing else 
killed the boy, this excitement too surely would. 

Suddenly a great light dawned in her eyes. She 
gave a sort of hysterical laugh, looking at the open 
door. 

“ You are come in time — all of you ! Thank 
Heaven ! Grizel — Ronald — Sir Julian — you will all 
help me ! ” 

Lyndon started violently and looked over his 
shoulder. His blustering loud anger had drowned 
the footsteps of visitors outside, who, after ringing in 
vain, had entered by the outer door he had carelessly 
left standing open. He turned now strangely grey, 
and tried to slink past them and out of the room as 
they entered. 

“ Halloa — wait a minute ! Why, by Jove, it’s — it’s 
you, my friend ! I forget your name, but I know 
you well enough,” interrupted Sir Julian Inglis, 
catching him firmly by the arm with a searching 
look. 

“ Airlie, stop him — help me ! He’s an impostor ! ” 
exclaimed the old diplomatist. 

“ Hush,” replied Ronald, softly and in haste— “ the 
boy is dying ! ” 

Guelda had flung herself on her knees beside the 
sofa without a word to the others, only seeing swiftly 
a terrible change on the sick boy’s face. 

“ You are safe, darling — don’t be frightened — you 
are safe now ! He is gone ! ” she faltered. 

“Yes, you saved me,” faintly answered Bino. He 
put up his arms round his sister’s neck ; but the effort 
was too much, and his feeble life fluttered out in that 
last embrace. 


18 


274 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER XXXVII. 

ALTHOUGH Guelda had been satisfactorily discovered 
by her friends, they had found the quest a weary and 
vexatious one. 

Lady Grizel had made frantic but vain efforts to 
learn the girl’s whereabouts during those five weeks 
when little Bino lay ill. She suspected Lord Lyndon, 
so set herself to find out where he was staying. He 
was neither at Sheen Abbey, nor yet at Lyndon 
House ; his lordship had gone to Paris, and left no 
address. This news was extracted, after some little 
difficulty, from the deaf and stupid old caretaker at 
the town mansion. 

“ Where were Miss Seaton and Master Seaton ? ” 

“Don’t know, miss— never heard of them. No; 
certainly no little boy was never in Lunnon with his 
lordship, nor went with him abroad.” 

Then this same crone, whom poor Guelda had once 
interviewed with sinking heart, slammed the door in 
Lady Grizel’s astonished haughty face. 

“He has entrapped her ; and the boy has dis- 
appeared as well, it seems. Good heavens, what has 
become of them ? But I will force him to tell me ! ” 
uttered Grizel, inwardly, and she clenched her shapely 
hand. 

No whisper of the riverside villa ever reached her ; 
but, with some difficulty, she found out Lord Lyndon’s 
lawyers, and thereby his address at Meurice’s. She 
wrote first one, and then a second, dignified entreaty 
to him, asking to be told where her friend Guelda 
Seaton was staying. No answer was vouchsafed. 
Then she deputed one of the attaches at the British 
Embassy — young Wyndham, who had been staying 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 275 

at Sheen for the revels — to extract an answer from 
this unfeeling, perhaps wicked uncle. A reluctant 
interview, while his carriage was waiting, only elicited 
the churlish message to Lady Grizel, that “Lord 
Lyndon could not take it upon himself to say where 
or with whom so independent a young lady as his 
niece might be staying.” “The man is one of the 
most insufferable specimens of an unrepentant 
prodigal I ever met ! ” wrote the indignant attache ’ 
who was a devoted admirer of her brusque and 
brilliant ladyship. 

No more could be done, it seemed ; but, as day 
after day passed into the morrow, a young and hand- 
some woman began to visit regularly some of the 
London hospitals. Her brunette beauty and un- 
consciously haughty carriage as she moved through 
the rooms, together with her simple, straightforward, 
but almost humble manner of addressing the patients, 
drew many eyes to follow her with a languid pleasure, 
and wonder as to who she might be. 

Yes, Grizel was contrite and very humble now. 
Her quick dark eyes, with their bright flash at times, 
the old curt manner of accustomed authority that 
from habit would peep out now and again, even the 
rich crimson flush, like that of a ripe peach, in her 
complexion of a “ nut-brown maid,” which neither 
past fasts nor present truer regrets could pale, telling 
of warm human nature and intense vitality within — 
these offered a curious contrast to her submissive tone 
at present and subdued voice asking questions, like 
one who wished to be instructed and to learn how to 
obey. 

In olden days, not so long past, Grizel had only 
thought of how to rule. Even those she loved most 
dearly she unconsciously expected to do as she wished 
— as she knew would be wisest for their happiness, so 
she believed. She never guessed that ruling had been 
with her hitherto inseparable from loving. 

News came that her cousin, Ronald Airlie, was on 

1 8* 


276 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


his way back to England, being invalided ; next, that 
he had arrived. 

Grizel had been tracking his ship’s course in her 
fancy every day of the voyage ; her thoughts had 
seemed to play about him on deck as he lay there 
pale and wounded. Ronald was coming back to be 
nursed, so she pre-arranged, by herself — would be 
once more all hers, as it were, for the time being. 
She imagined him blessing his nurse for restoring him 
to health, greeting her with the old warm affection 
that, alas ! had so misled her into believing she alone 
should ever reign queen in his heart. 

“ How shall I bear it — how shall I bear it ? ” she 
tortured herself with vainly asking. 

The dreaded moment came at last — Ronald’s hand 
caught hers in a hurried pressure, his eyes fixed them- 
selves eagerly on her face ; then his lips uttered the 
hasty words : 

“ How is Guelda ? ” 

For three or four seconds Lady Grizel stood silent, 
as, with a flash of woman’s quick divination, she 
rightly guessed that thought alone was foremost in 
his mind, and had been so for days. 

“ Where is Guelda — can you not tell me something 
about her ? ” pursued the gaunt man, for lean and 
grey of face the handsome Airlie looked as he sup- 
ported his stooping tall form with a stick. 

Grizel looked pitifully in his eyes, that were 
hungering, yearning for news, though the lines of 
sadness about his mouth told how hopeless — how 
full of dread even were his expectations of what he 
might have to hear. 

“ Dear Ronald, I trust she is well. I hope in a few 
days — perhaps sooner — to be able to tell you where 
she is. But just now — O, Ronald, forgive me, and 
try to be patient, will not you ? — though I have done 
my best to find out, I cannot tell you where she is 1 ” 

Soothingly, little by little, she told him all she 
knew. At first the blow staggered the sick man 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 277 

“ Gone — disappeared without a word, a trace ! ” 

He laid down his head on his hands, and was 
almost ready to believe all was over — she was dead. 
But then another thought crept with consoling balm 
into his long-tortured heart Islay had recommended 
Guelda to his sister’s care ; the letter he left explained 
his fair guest’s presence at Islay House. 

What if, after all — the proof of Ronald’s own eyes, 
the newspaper slanders notwithstanding — she should 
be unblemished — stainless in mind as when Airlie last 
spoke to her, face to face under the yew-tree at 
Sheen ? It was — it must be so ! 

The blessed assurance infused fresh vigour into 
poor Airlie’s veins. Alive or dead, he need not be 
ashamed of his love. He raised his head, and simply 
said : 

“Don’t fret any more, Grizel. You have done 
your best ever since you got my letter. Now it is my 
business. I will find her, t please Heaven ! ” 

Then he bade his cousin farewell for the present. 
He wanted to collect his wits and keep his yet feeble 
strength for the search he must undertake. 

Lady Grizel, when alone, felt astonished at herself. 
A great change seemed to have come upon her ; 
there was a perfect quiet in her long-troubled heart. 

“ How strange,” she said deliberately to herself — 
“ I do not love him in the least any more ! ” It was 
so indeed. Those first words, “ How is Guelda ? ” 
seemed to make Grizel utterly understand how her 
own image must be immeasurably second in Ronald’s 
thoughts ; and to be second, where she had given her 
first woman’s love was impossible for long to that 
proud spirit. She thought those three words killed 
the love she had striven for months past, with secret 
tears and sorrow, to put out of her heart ; but they 
were only the test which revealed she had been 
cured for some time, though she had not guessed the 
truth. 

It was an astonishment to find how calmly she 


278 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


could look at Ronald’s altered features, pitying him 
certainly, but only with a sister’s solicitude, not with 
the vehement feeling of yore which had been so 
jealous and full of pain. It was quite a blessed relief 
to feel so peaceful in mind. 

“ I shall never love any man in that way again — it 
is not worth it,” said Grizel to herself, with a cynically 
humourous smile, that, though subdued, had a gleam 
of her old self brightening its pensiveness. “ Of 
course he will always be a brother to me ; I shall 
care for him just as much as for Islay,” she added to 
herself. And yet, hardly as much ; for with dear old 
Islay she had never so cared about being first, there- 
fore had not tasted the pangs of dispossession. 

During the next few days, while Ronald sought 
feverishly for any trace of his lost love, Grizel, finding 
she could not help him, visited the hospitals more 
diligently than ever. Meantime, Sir Julian Inglis, 
like a true old friend, having received a frenzied 
letter from Airlie telling of Guelda’s disappearance, 
immediately exclaimed : 

“ God bless me ! I must go back at once and see 
if I can’t help in this affair. Poor girl — poor fellow ! 
Why, Lady Grizel must be in an agony of mind! 
She should have sent for me.” 

And, despising east winds, he started home 
immediately. No one would have dreamed, how- 
ever, the old diplomatist’s little secret — viz., that his 
principal thought — he could not help it — was not so 
much his true sympathy and apprehension for Airlie 
and the beautiful vanished girl, but for Lady Grizel. 
Well, he was getting on in life, he owned to himself, 
so there was no use in making himself laughed at. 
Better no living soul, including Lady Grizel herself, 
should ever guess that Islay’s handsome, high-spirited 
sister, ever since she was a child, had reigned with 
tyrant sway in his old heart. 

One day, Airlie, forgettting his wound and weak- 
ness, rushed into Lady Grizel’s boudoir with an 


THE FHEAKS OF LAI) V FOKTUNE. 


279 


excitement that lit up his face as if a happy fire 
burned in his heart, so strongly it illuminated every 
feature. He did not notice that Grizel sprang up to 
meet him as if she also had something wonderful to 
say; while old Sir Julian Inglis, who was sitting as 
usual in courteous and dutiful attendance on the 
wilful, sparkling girl who was his young goddess, 
smiled and softly rubbed his hands, as if expecting 
agreeable intelligence. 

“ Hurrah ! — we have found Guelda — she is alive 
and well ! ” exclaimed Ronald, breathlessly, between 
his joy and haste. “ She is in a house on the river, 
near Hampton Court, and has been nursing Bino. I 
have just seen a letter from her — there is no mistake ; 
it is her very own handwriting.” 

Ronald was so overjoyed, so overcome, he could 
hardly speak to describe the appeal for help that his 
poor sweetheart had sent to Islay’s lawyers, and 
which the latter had just shown him. 

“ I know — I know ! I found it all out for myself at 
the small- pox hospital. Why, I have been sending 
for you everywhere these two hours, and I could 
hardly wait here to see you, I was so impatient ! ” 
cried Lady Grizel, who was radiant with relief and 
her own excitement. 

She felt as if a mountain had been rolled from her 
mind. Surely, had the strain gone on longer of 
feeling herself responsible for Guelda’s possible death, 
she must have broken down into a grey, anxious, old 
woman before her time, so she now thought. 

“ I found Julie there, who used to be Guelda’s 
French maid,” she hurried out. “The wretched 
woman took the infection, it seems, from little 
Bertrand. She knew me and called me. Her 
conscience was stirred to make a confession in case 
she should die, she said, though she is getting better, 
and is only weak. And, Ronald— she has told me 
such things, you could hardly believe, about this 
wretch who calls himself Lord Lyndon l ” 


280 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“ What things ? Do they concern Guelda, now — at 
this moment, I mean ? ” 

“No; only that she declares, and can prove, he is 
an impostor ! ” 

“ Never mind that now, Grizel. Think of her — let 
us go down to her at once.” 

“Yes, yes; and pray let me come with you,” 
exclaimed Sir Julian, jumping up quite nimbly. The 
old diplomatist had kept in the background during 
the dialogue hitherto ; but he did not mean to be left 
out of seeing and sharing the happiness of his friends 
in the coming interview, after braving his doctors, and 
the east winds, and a journey home in order to give 
his help to this happy end. No, no ; he had earned 
his reward. 

It was in this manner that these three arrived at 
the riverside villa, just in time to support poor Guelda 
in her hour of bitter grief, and to befriend little 
Bertrand for the last time he should need help on 
earth. 

Their meeting, after all, was not what they had 
expected. Instead of present happiness, they were 
gathered with bowed heads and in a solemn reverent 
hush round the couch of a dead child, where his 
sister was kneeling in the agony of feeling that all 
was over — all her watchings and tears and vigils were 
useless now. The boy was gone whom her dying 
mother had left to her care — her charge, darling, 
playmate. 

In the poor girl’s bitterness, she was almost ready 
to reproach herself, though she knew not well why. 
This little blossom of life had been plucked so early ; 
was it that she had not been careful enough to shelter 
and rear it ? 


the freaks of lady fortune. 


281 


CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

It was not till after some time that Lady Grizel 
could tell her story of how she had found Julie in the 
hospital to Guelda ; the chief person whom it should 
have interested. But now the tale, though strange, 
fell on languid ears. 

The mourning sisters thoughts wandered to a little 
grave, the mould on which had been freshly heaped 
but a fortnight ago. Now Bertrand was gone, what 
did it matter whether an impostor had usurped his 
name and inheritance or not? All her own wild 
attempts, privations, toil, to secure her boy his rights, 
had failed. 

“ I always knew he would be found out some day. 
You will tell me about it later. What does it matter 
now ? ” 

She had merely sighed in dejection, when Grizel 
first gently hinted at having accidently found Julie, 
and received her confession. It was the day but one 
after Bino’s death, and she had hoped to rouse her 
friend. 

Poor Guelda had remained in a sort of dull stupor 
till after the little boy’s funeral, which took place in 
the nearest graveyard. Her long night-watches, the 
too great fatigue she had so unflinchingly undergone, 
following upon an exhaustion of mind and body she 
had previously felt owing to her own troubles — all 
these had told upon her vitality. She seemed unable 
to think or speak or act. Once a faint colour, pale as 
the rose-tint in an Indian shell, had tinged her cheek, 
an awakened, almost startled glance came in her eyes. 
She had just seen that Ronald Airlie was kneeling 
beside her during the simple burial-service. In 


282 THE FEEAKS OF LADY FOKTUNE. 

another second flush and glance had equally died, and 
the former look of utter apathy in sorrow had settled 
on her face again. 

The funeral over, Lady Grizel had immediately 
and kindly forced Guelda to leave, and brought her 
once more to Islay House. There, blood-poisoning 
declared itself, and she was sick almost unto death. 

Airlie was half distracted during this time, for he 
could not see her whom he had so despairingly loved 
during these late months of pain and separation. 

“ Do not let Miss Seaton be disturbed,” was the 
advice of her doctor ; “ her mind has been greatly 
overwrought, but presently it will recover its tone 
again as she feels herself among friends. 

Every day whilst she lay ill, a pale-faced young 
man, Jobling by name, came with a humble shuffling 
gait to the door of the great house in Park Lane, half 
uneasy, yet trying to look proud of counting himself 
a friend, as he asked after Miss Seaton. The last 
time he called, he was overpowered by being told 
that Lady Grizel Airlie wished to see him in her 
boudoir. 

“ My friend, Miss Seaton, has asked me to thank 
you in her name for all your kindness and devotion 
to her little brother and herself : and we hope you 
will accept what is due to you for your friendly 
services,” said Lady Grizel. 

“ What — all that ? ” stammered the young man, 
blushing to his ears, as Grizel put a little roll in his 
hand. “No, no, I could not — indeed, my lady, not in 
conscience ! I never attended expecting anything — 
not any fees, your ladyship — indeed, I did not ! ” 

His eyes glistened upon the notes with a hungry 
expression nevertheless, though he put the money 
aside. Grizel noticed the look, and, with a flash of 
insight, comprehended it, as also the pale pinched 
appearance of the wretched youth, his frayed shirt- 
cuffs and his coat wearing here and there. 

“ The labourer is worthy of his hire,” she said, with 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 283 

kindly pity, insisting on his taking the money with a 
dignity not to be resisted by so needy an individual. 
“ The best of physicians could hardly have done 
better than you did — so Miss Seaton desired me to 
tell you. She says, if you only keep to your pro- 
fession, you may yet have a fine career before you.” 

Guelda had indeed feebly dictated the thoughtful 
message from her room, where she still lay, feeling 
weak and giddy when she tried to rise; and tired by 
the least exertion of mind or body. 

Jobling’s little pig-eyes glistened. 

“Tell her that I’m going back to the shop — I beg 
pardon, the business — this very afternoon, and that 
I’m resolved to stick to it, and see if I can’t do as 
well as she thinks of me. She’ll be pleased to hear 
that ! If ever I do come to any good,” he added, with 
what Lady Grizel thought almost a maudlin sob, 
but then poor Jobling felt very dejected and of small 
account — “ if I do turn out anything like a help to 
my old father, it will be owing to the words she said 
to me one night as we were sitting up with little 
Bertrand. She spoke to me of my life, and seemed 
to put it so clearly before me — how I’d been wasting 
my health and chances fooling and drinking with 
Lyndon. I told her how he’d dropped me for my 
pains. I don’t care a rap for him now, though ; not 
sin.ce I’ve learnt to see what stuff a lord is made of. 
You’ll tell her I’m going back to work ? ” 

Grizel promised to do so ; and the yonng sporting 
doctor departed a wiser if sadder man than some 
weeks ago. 

Another visitor, stout and big and red-faced, with 
flaxen hair and moustache, and a Teutonic accent, 
daily inquired for Mees Zea'ton. No one perhaps 
was more genuinely happy to know of her safety, and 
that she was sheltered with friends, than good Herr 
Schultz. 

As to Airlie, he listened with almost self-angered 
impatience to ail these proofs of genuine kindly 


284 THE FREAKS OF LALY FORTUNE. 

feeling in such humbled individuals for the girl he 
loved. 

“And I have done less for her than these two did 
— I can do no more for her now ! ” 

He blamed himself bitterly for having ever doubted 
her for an instant. True, it was not his fault that 
she had been left, alone and unprotected — that in 
many a weary night-watch he himself had endured 
such poignant maddening anguish. 

“ But I ought to have trusted her 1 ” he exclaimed, 
in self-reproach. 

And now Airlie longed to comfort his poor love, 
counted the hours till he might have the blissful 
chance of seeing her again — of hearing that voice 
which was sweetest music in his ears. But still, he 
had never yet asked to see her ! 

It struck Grizel as odd, certainly, that her cousin 
should lounge aimlessly for hours in the boudoir, or 
in Islay’s smoking-room, looking restless, miserable, 
expectant — inquiring daily, in a constrained voice, 
Was Guelda better — when would she be able to come 
downstairs ? And yet he never said : When may I 
see her ? 

“Perhaps he knows he cannot just yet,” was her 
ladyship’s lame conclusion. 

Upstairs, Guelda seemed as restless, as troubled as 
himself, on the several occasions when Lady Grizel 
tried the experiment of cheering her by saying : 

“ Ronald is here as usual again to-day, asking how 
you are getting on. He is looking better himself, 
poor fellow! You must be quick and get well to 
come down and see him.” 

Guelda would only turn her weak head round a 
little, burying it almost out of sight in the pillow, 
while a red spot burned on her cheek. 

“ Soon,” she would murmur — “ I shall soon be 
better. You are all very good to me, Grizel.” 

“ I don’t understand lovers. What do these two 
mean ? Could anybody make out what they want 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 285 

except themselves?” said Grizel, brusquely, to 
herself. 

But one day, when for the first time Guelda seemed 
a little stronger, she surprised her friendly nurse by 
asking, in a weak voice : 

“ How is poor Julie? Has she recovered from her 
dreadful illness?” 

“ She is getting on pretty well, though she had a 
terrible relapse, and was so weak when first I saw 
her that she had very small hopes of herself. She 
took the small-pox in its worst form,” replied Lady 
Grizel. 

“You said she had made a confession of some kind 
— please tell me about it now.” 

Grizel was nothing loth. She hoped the tale would 
stir her sick friend’s thoughts, and fire Guelda with 
renewed animation against her so-called uncle. 

The story was brief, though succinct. Passing 
through a ward of patients in the first stage of re- 
covery from the small-pox, in one of the hospitals she 
daily visited, Grizel heard with surprise her own 
name feebly called. She approached the narrow bed, 
on which lay a middle-aged, dark-haired woman, so 
terribly marked by the ravages of the disease in its 
confluent type she could not recall the features as 
at all familiar. Before she could speak, however, 
the sufferer broke forth in French, with a weak- voiced 
but anxious volubility, painful to hear : 

“ You do not know me, miladi — no — no ! Ah, this 
maudite disease. But otherwise you would surely 
remember Julie — poor Julie — who was the maid of 
your friend, Miss Seaton. You used to come so often 
into her room at Sheen Abbey, miladi, that I knew 
you well by sight.” 

Then, on being remembered, if not recognised, the 
unhappy woman caught at Lady Grizel’s hand with 
weak feverish fingers. She was dying, she was con- 
vinced. In any case, the tortures of her conscience 
were not to be endured. Ah, Ciel, when she thought, 


286 TIIE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

during her honrs of terrible illness, of her poor young 
mistress and the miseries she was perhaps under- 
going ! And to know it was all owing to that 
monster — that villain ! Julie raised her clasped hands 
and her eyes with a gesture invoking from Heaven 
such signal vengeance, and a look so malignant — so 
awfully bitter in its sense of being wronged — that 
Lady Grizel, as she watched her, felt alarmed. 

“ Who is he ? Of whom are you speaking ? ” she 
asked, wondering that Guelda’s sufferings should so 
deeply touch this woman. “You mean her uncle 
perhaps — Lord Lyndon ? ” 

“ Her uncle — yes! ” retorted Julie, her sallow face 
flushing dark red, her weak shrill voice full of inde- 
scribable scorn and loathing, while her words poured 
forth rapidly. “ Lord Lyndon, forsooth ! Ha, ha ! — 
a fine lord, indeed ! But he has enjoyed himself long 
enough with his grand title and his carriages and 
servants. Yes — servants. He should have given me 
my proper rank and place, and not cajoled me into 
keeping quiet for his sake and remaining like a ser- 
vant, and then afterwards deserting me! Do you 
comprehend ? He left me — me, who should be his 
wife — to crawl here like a dog, and die, for aught he 
cared, though he knew I had taken this infection — 
while he only laughed in his heart and hurried away 
to Paris, knowing I was too feeble to follow. Only 
for that — bah, who knows ? — I might be wicked 
enough to keep silence. But no — no ! It all came 
upon me in those long, dreadful hours. The secret 
is too heavy on my soul. I must confess it all, or I 
shall not be allowed to live. It is a punishment — you 
understand ? from Heaven.” 

“Tell it then, and live,” exhorted Lady Grizel, 
excited beyond herself. She had never seen such 
tragic hatred or so pitiful an attempt to drive a hard 
bargain with supreme justice even on one’s supposed 
death-bed. “ His wife ! What can you mean ? ” 

“ Yes— yes — yes ! He is not Lord Lyndon at all, 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


287 


the miserable wretch ! His name is — but no matter ; 
he was a courier, a valet — there ! I have been his 
slave and tool, and done his work long enough. He 
has duped and deserted me ! Ah, he did — the 
ruffian ! ” 

Exhausted by her own violence, the woman lay 
back, unable to speak more. One of the nurses came 
up, and put a stop to further conversation, lest the 
patient should be made worse. 

Lady Grizel pleaded however to ask one question 
— could Julie tell her anjdhing of Miss Seaton ? The 
weak answer gave her information of the villa — of 
Guelda’s arrival there to nurse her little brother. 
Then she met Ronald with her news. 

It was not until a second visit that Grizel was able 
to eagerly elicit more. This time Julie was stronger, 
therefore rather more frightened of worldly conse- 
quences than of Heaven’s justice, She was sullen 
too. It needed some coaxing, or, still more, a whisper 
of solid monetary advantages to induce her to break 
her frightened silence. 

Then the woman told that Lyndon’s real name was 
Bauer. Long ago he had been valet for a short time 
to Mr. Robert Seaton ; then he was courier or valet 
with several other masters. Julie had known him for 
some years. There was an attachment between 
them that had evidently been deep on her side, and 
; lasted while it was pleasant or profitable on his. 

When Julie was acting as maid to her young 
mistress, Miss Seaton, she met her old lover, Bauer, 
|. again in London. Their intercourse was renewed, 
and mutual gossip upon old Lord Lyndon’s domestic 
matters past and present, together with a careless 
remark once made by the valet that he himself had 
been supposed to have a curious resemblance to the 
dead Robert Seaton, originated the germ of the plot. 
In which mind it first sprang to birth, she could not 
say. But through most of the London season and 
down in the country it was being slowly matured. 


288 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


Bauer, carefully disguised, used to watch old Lord 
Lyndon when riding with his grand-daughter in the 
park — so Julie affirmed — studying him in order to 
copy his air and gestures, so that they should seem 
hereditary. 

Julie it was who warned him that the old man’s 
health was breaking up — so she knew from Lord 
Lyndon’s confidential servant Hillis, though this, by 
her devoted grandfather’s express orders, was care- 
fully concealed from Guelda. Julie again used to 
draw the unsuspecting old butler out a hundred 
times to tell his stories of Master Robert and Master 
Bertrand, so that the false heir should arrive ready 
primed. Her woman’s wit had neglected no means. 

Lastly she had shammed illness when her young 
mistress left for Scotland after the harvest revels. 
Lord Lyndon had shown several secret signs of fail- 
ing mind and memory, with threatenings of the 
stroke that overtook him. 

The plot was ripe. It succeeded even beyond 
the expectations of the accomplices. That was all. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


289 


CHAPTER XXXIX. 

“Yes — that is all ! ” remarked Guelda, turning round 
on her pillow with a deep sigh. Now that my little 
Bertrand is gone, what does it matter to me who 
this man is ? ” 

“ Heavens above ! What does it matter ! Why, 
everything — at least, a great deal, you dear, foolish 
child ! ” chid Lady Grizel, affectionately, but in a 
rousing voice. “You are now sole heiress to your 
grandfather — the rightful mistress of Sheen.” 

“ I ! Is that really so ? I did not think of it 
before — my head is so weak. But what signifies 
riches for only me? I have no strength or 
spirit left to fight this man for myself, dear Grizel. 
He is in possession ; he will resist to the uttermost. 
It would be a long weary action, and I have no 
money and no heart in the matter. Why should I 
attempt it ? Better let him keep it.” 

“ Guelda, I do not seem to know you ! Where is 
your courage, your pride in your family, your sense of 
duty ? If Sheen is yours by right, are you justified 
leaving this ex-valet, this common felon, to gamble 
and drink it away, and bring misery on so many 
honest dependents? Be brave— be strong! If not 
for your own sake, surely you owe this to Ronald 
Airlie ! ” 

Guelda sprang up as if touched by an electric 
thrill ; two red spots burned in her cheeks. 

“ For Ronald ! True, you are right. For his sake, 
not my own. To give him back the old place that 
belonged to his forefathers. You have roused me 
indeed, Grizel. I thank you from my heart ! ” 

“ It is not quite likely that Ronald Airlie will 

19 


290 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


accept the gift without the giver, my dear,” quoth 
Lady Grizel drily, with a small smile. 

“ That is all over. I gave him up for his own 
sake ; and now, who knows but what he may believe 
those dreadful hints in the papers, and not care, not 
want ” And hereupon poor Guelda in despera- 

tion burst out crying, with such piteous sobs in her 
weakness that Lady Grizel was half frightened, yet 
deeply touched. 

“ As if he ever could have believed such rubbish ! ” 
she cried with fine indignation — and then secretly 
hoped she might be forgiven the affectionate dissimu- 
lation. “ Why, my poor dear, he is on thorns at this 
moment! You sent him away; well, it is for you 
to call him back. He is not rich, and you are, or 
ought to be, an heiress ; so rejoice for his sake.” 

And after some time, and with many more such 
words, she comforted Guelda ; who looked so pale, so 
woebegone, with her lovely hair pushed back from 
her soft pale features and her mouth trying vainly to 
quiver into a smile, that her friend’s heart smote her 
for allowing the invalid girl so to disturb herself. 

Downstairs, she presently spoke a few straight- 
forward words to her cousin, which ended thus : 

“ I believe in my heart Guelda is fretting herself 
ill for your sake, Ronald. Don’t let this go on ” 

“ She will be a great heiress most likely, and I am 
only a poor invalided soldier, with nothing but a 
medal to recommend me,” said Airlie, despondingly, 
with a slight flush of poverty’s pride on his bronzed 
face, that had otherwise little natural colour yet. 

“ How selfish you men are ! Come, Ronald, con- 
sider her and not your pride ! ” his cousin replied in 
rebuke. “ Besides,” she added, with a grave delibera- 
tion, “ Sir Julian says if the Lyndon case is to be 
won at all for Guelda, some staunch friend must 
advise and support and guide her. Who could do 
that so well as yourself — when you are her husband ? 
Very likely, however — no matter what Julie swears, 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


291 


and even in spite of Sir Julian recognising Bauer’s 
face — no jury would give a verdict against the man 
whom Lord Lyndon recognised as his son.” 

“ It is a shameful imposition ! Yes, for Guelda’s 
sake it must and shall be fought ! Why should she 
be beggared by this low, impudent fellow ? ” ex- 
claimed Ronald, his blood boiling as he remembered 
how he himself had been insulted and turned out of 
Sheen by the menial who presumed to treat Guelda 
— Guelda herself, Airlie’s cherished love — with the 
familiarities of an uncle. 

Lady Grizel smiled a little queerly to herself when 
alone. 

“ Humph, what queer creatures we men and women 
are,” she reflected — “ especially lovers ! 

* But human bodies are sic fools, 

For a’ their colleges and schools, 

That when nae real ills perplex them 
They make enow themselves to vex them.* 

Here were these two quite ready to make themselves 
miserable for nothing. But I flatter myself I have 
brought them together again at last. Heigho ! How 
strange if I should do it after all ! ” 

Woman-like, she could not resist imparting the 
recital of her efforts to Sir Julian, who rubbed his 
hands. 

“ Capital, capital — what finesse ! Ah ” — regretfully 
— “what a splendid diplomatist you would have 
made ! ” 

“ They must meet to-morrow,” declared Lady 
Grizel, with decision. “ I have settled it all ; but 
Guelda must not know beforehand. She is to be 
carried into the boudoir for a change — she is so weak, 
poor girl ! ” 

Next day, indeed, the two met who loved each 
other best of all on earth, but had been almost, not 
quite, held back from owning it this second time after 
their first parting. Ronald was kneeling on one knee 

19* 


292 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


beside the sofa on which Guelda lay. How pale she 
looked in her black, mourning robes ! Her face was 
so pure and exquisite in its soft pallor — an ivory 
carving, a living snowdrop, a creature made of some- 
thing more fragile and ethereal than ordinary flesh 
and blood. Airlie felt, with a great rush of pity and 
tenderness, that he had never loved her so greatly 
before ; deeply as his heart had been stirred, he felt a 
protecting, devoted reverence for this fair girl now, in 
her weakness, that was far higher than even his first 
impassioned love and admiration. She was to him 
like a holy thing — the best of himself. 

“ And do you really love me, and believe in me as 
much as ever, in spite of the unkind slanders of the 
world ? ” Guelda was asking, in her low tones, with 
intense earnestness. 

Her lovely brown eyes, with the warm, almost 
tawny glow that matched her hair, were looking as it 
were into Ronald’s very soul. 

“ Do I love you as well, my own, my very darling ? 
I love you as I loved you the first day we met in the 
forest — only a hundred times better ! I trust you as 
I told you then I would trust you — only a hundred 
times more ! ” 

“ Ah, what a happy thing life seems after all ! ” 
murmured Guelda, leaning her head back upon her 
cushions with a pale but blissful smile upon her lips. 

She felt almost faint with this well-nigh too great 
ecstasy ; and yet it was chastened and subdued by 
the sorrow that had so lately befallen her. 

“ What you two have got to do is just to keep quiet 
and get perfectly well. Your wound is not healed 
yet, Ronald, so pray don’t keep exciting yourself 
about this wretched impostor of a Lord Lyndon,” 
announced Lady Grizel Airlie one day, standing 
dictatorially over the pair of lovers she had once so 
bitterly envied. 

But now there was only friendliness sparkling in 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


293 


her black eyes — a shade of good-humoured impa- 
tience, as with such fond foolishness, curling her 
proud lip. 

“Exactly so!” chimed in Sir Julian Inglis, who 
was beaming upon them all three with quite a fatherly 
smile. “ Of course this fellow defies us now, en- 
trenched as he is in possession of Lyndon House ; 
but wait till Islay comes back. Then we shall all see 
the fight begin in good earnest. Depend upon it, he’ll 
come back all right with the proofs.” 

How little could any of them guess beforehand in 
what manner Islay should come back? Yes, he was 
coming ; but, alas ! how ? 


294 


THE FEEAKS OF LADY FOETUNE. 


CHAPTER XL. 

As Sir Julian Inglis said of him, the false Lord 
Lyndon — as these his opponents believed him to be — 
had entrenched himself behind the axiom : “ posses- 
sion is nine points of the law.” 

Already there were rumours in society-journals of 
the coming grand sensational case — of a certain lord' 
lately returned from the colonies, whose identity was 
to be disputed — of romantic disclosures concerning a 
noble family belonging to the green forest-district 
near the windings of the Wye. Already the matter 
was being eagerly discussed in confidential whispers. 
No one wished to commit him or herself to an opinion, 
but — “ The man was reputed to be a perfect hermit 
— to be almost as fearful of contact with his kind 
as the mad nobleman who believed his head was 
made of glass. And, if the story were true, why, Miss 
Seaton would soon be a great heiress again ; and 
handsome Ronald Airlie was still as lucky as, in spite 
of his poverty, he had always been considered in love 
and war. Was he not the hero of the day ? Tales 
of his bravery were repeated in every London draw- 
ing room. 

For the engagement of Airlie and Guelda Seaton 
was now announced, though in a quiet way — not 
being published under the head of fashionable intelli- 
gence. Poor girl, she shrank from publicity after her 
painful experiences of society- journals ! Besides, she 
was still in deep mourning. 

But the wind of popular opinion was now pleased 
to blow favourably for Miss Seaton. Once more 
society’s weathercocks — its fashionable ladies’ heads 
— nodded at ‘ fair ’ towards her. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


205 


“Why, she is actually staying with Lady Grizel 
Airlie again — going out with her every day. They 
are most devoted friends ! ” “There never could have 
been any truth from the beginning in those wretched 
lies of the papers —I did not believe them myself,” 
said all these just “fine-lady” judges of society’s 
conduct. 

Meanwhile the days were passing — passing most 
happily, if with a certain tension for the lovers. They 
asked nothing better than to be together. Yet there 
was a sense of expectation — of preparation for a 
coming, possibly desperate struggle which might 
reduce them both to penury, perhaps absolute want. 

“ That is only one of the chances of life. We may 
win instead, and be more rich than we ever imagined. 
But, whatever happens, we must be married first ; 
then I shall have a right to fight your battles, or 
share your possible defeat,” said Ronald, with a 
cheerful smile at thought of facing the worst in her 
company, as he looked fondly at his promised bride. 

And Guelda answered : 

“ For your sake, and for your right, I hope to win. 
Sheen has never brought happiness or good luck to 
our family ever since my grandfather got it. Do not 
think me very superstitious ; but, since little Bertrand 
died, it has seemed to me that no Seaton is fated to 
enjoy what was unfairly won. Think of my grand- 
father’s unhappy life, of my father’s early death, and 
as we believe of my uncle’s ruin and miserable end ! ” 

Airlie was silent in reply. The loss of Sheen 
Abbey had always rankled in his mind since he was 
a boy. In truth, he did believe himself to be right- 
fully the owner of its fine woods and green meadows, 
that lay in a pleasant valley, between the tree-crowned 
hill-ridges bordering the forest. Every legend of the 
gray old Abbey had been more dear to him in child- 
hood than any fairy-tale, or the most enthralling book 
of wild adventures. O, to win back his lost heritage ! 
That had been his cherished dream of boyhood. 


296 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


With older years it had not faded, but was put away 
in his mind with a sigh and smile. 

“ And now — who knows ? — my boyhood’s fancy 
may come true,” he inwardly reflected, marvelling. 
But he wished to draw Guelda’s mind to happier 
thoughts than dwelling on the apparent punishment 
that had descended on her grandfather and his 
children. And in this he could always succeed. Did 
not he love her — did not she love him — both feeling 
as if no two had ever so loved on earth before? 
That was enough. 

Meanwhile Ronald was busied and eager, seeing the 
Lyndon case placed in the hands of the very best 
lawyers he could secure. Sir Julian was actively 
helping him, and also made it his business to watch 
the enemy’s movements. He soon reported that 
Lord Lyndon —or Bauer — was showing extraordinary 
anxiety. 

“By George, the fellow seems in a tremendous 
fright ! He is not letting the grass grow under his 
feet ; but, if we don’t keep a sharp look-out, he will 
catch us napping ! ” exclaimed the old chargt 
d affaires , with a sort of admiration for the cunning 
of the foe. “ And he thinks of all his weapons too 
— tried to get at some of the papers to insert 
little paragraphs about his ill-health and nervous 
attacks, which kept him from going into society ; 
only luckily I had advised Airlie beforehand to 
see to that. There is no doubt now, my dear Miss 
Seaton, that he was the author of those — ahem ! — 
base insinuations which rather annoyed you at the 
time, eh ? ” 

“ I always thought as much,” calmly replied Guelda, 
smiling. The remembrance of those calumnious 
innuendoes could not hurt her now ; was she not secure 
in Ronald’s love ? “ He is a clever adversary,” she 

continued. “ There is one move on his part I have 
been fearing, but I have checkmated him only this 
very day, as you will all be glad to hear. It is the 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


297 


only thing I have really done myself, but it is some- 
thing.” 

She took off her hat as she spoke, having been out 
for a drive through the suburbs with Lady Grizel on 
a delicious April evening, when lilacs and laburnum, 
all in a pale-green outbursting of the spring’s first 
freshness, gave promise of the flowers of May, and 
made modest little villas behind their high wooden 
palings seem charming leafy nests in such weather. 

“ And what have you done ? ” asked- Sir Julian and 
Airlie, who had come in together. 

Both men looked at the slight girlish figure out- 
lined against a western window, with admiration ; 
the evening sun lit up her beautiful hair till it seemed 
an aureole round that fair, exquisitely lovable face. 

“ She has done a good angel’s deed,” said Lady 
Grizel, abruptly ; “ she has saved our chief witness, the 
unfortunate Julie, from that man’s clutches. He had 
almost persuaded her this very day to go back to 
him.” 

“ Almost ; but her better self prevailed — not my 
words,” went on Guelda, in explanation, after ques- 
tions and exclamations of angry astonishment came 
eagerly from Ronald and Inglis. “ He induced her 
to see him again ; offered her a heavy bribe to go 
away from the convalescent hospital this very evening 
to some place where he would hide her. Luckily, 
she distrusted him, and asked an hour to consider it. 
He had his plans all laid to carry her off. Just at 
the crisis we happened to pay her a visit ; and, some- 
how, from her manner, I guessed something was 
amiss, taxed her with it, and, when Grizel left us for 
a few minutes, got the whole confession.” 

“Julie was a wise woman,” interrupted Grizel. 
“ She rated a man’s professions of affection for what 
they are worth, and preferred her attachment to her 
mistress. For she really had been evidently fond of 
you all through, Guelda ; one could see it in her face, 
sulky and disagreeable though she often is.” 


298 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


Airlie stroked his silky moustache with a laugh, 
murmuring : 

“ What a cynic you have grown, Grizel ! It was 
not ever thus. Poor Wyndham — unhappy Scrope ! 
Are all men’s professions of attachment to be counted 
as worthless and hollow in your eyes? ” 

A slight blush rose to his cousin’s cheek, for the 
men he named had truly been among her most 
devoted admirers in the past year, when she had 
lightly turned from them all. And that had been 
secretly for his sake — thank Heaven, he so little 
guessed it ! Well, now she was cured. Before her 
blush died down again, old Sir Julian was heard 
speaking gravely and with a puzzled look. 

“Yet it is strange that Julie gave up the chance of 
returning to this man, after having loved him. 
Forgive me, my dear Lady Grizel ; but when you are 
a little older, which is necessary for experience, you 
will learn that human nature is not to be withstood, 
and, in nine cases out of ten, when a woman had 
loved a man, he has only to ask for forgiveness and 
she will overlook any ill-treatment.” 

“Yes,” put in Guelda, quietly, unconsciously 
speaking with the tone of one who knows ; “ I have 
seen it so among the miners and rough foresters when 
we lived in our cottage and were so poor. The 
women forgave blows and kicks till seventy times 
seven ; only at last, when some brute would make 
one go in fear of her life, then the unhappy soul 
would distrust all his advances with trembling. I 
think — I am almost certain that poor Julie dares not 
trust him.” 

“ Very likely ; self-preservation is the first law of 
nature,” observed the men. 

“ And there is one other powerful consideration,” 
went on their gentle philosopher, “ and that is 
wounded vanity. Julie is extremely vain ; and she 
told me Bauer — as she calls him — shuddered and 
stepped back when he saw her, as if the sight was 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 299 

repugnant to him. You know she is terribly dis- 
figured. She had been brooding over that, and 
could not forgive it. When I spoke of retirement 
and a calm comfortable life in some cottage of her 
own in France, she grasped eagerly at the idea. 
Certainly she protected me, poor soul, to the best of 
her power at Sheen.” 

“ And where is she now?” inquired Airlie and Sir 
Julian. 

“ Safe in my late retreat,” said Lady Grizel, with a 
sort of grim humour. “We took her there straight, 
just to stay for a little while. It is very tranquil 
there, and will do her no end of good. I hope she 
will derive as much advantage from it as I did.” 

At this rather ambiguous sentence Ronald hid a 
good-humoured, quizzical smile behind his hand ; 
Sir Julian drily coughed. Neither of them knew 
that in all good faith poor Grizel had needed the 
peace she found there — was the better for it. It was 
best they should not guess this. 

But Guelda had divined something by a woman’s 
instinct of fellow-feeling, and, taking up an evening 
newspaper by way of diversion to the conversation, 
suddenly exclaimed, with genuine surprise : 

“ Listen to this ! ‘ Mr. and Lady Ermyntrude 
Gamble have arrived in town, and are staying at 
Lyndon House on a visit.’ Mr. Bauer has indeed 
played his trump-card ! As Lady Ermyntrude 
believes in him, perhaps her example may induce 
other people to do so too.” 

“ It is all malice on her part,” exclaimed Lady 
Grizel, angrily — “ wheels within wheels. She has 
never forgiven you, Guelda, since Islay became such 
a friend of yours.” 

“ If only Islay were back with those certificates ! *’ 
said Airlie, laconically, but with inward trouble. 

Bauer was likely to prove a formidable adversary, 
and this fresh move of his complicated their 
difficulties, Ronald foresaw, for Lady Ermyntrude 


300 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


had a good deal of influence in society ; and if backed 
by society, Bauer would have more hardihood to 
continue this hazardous and most expensive trial. 
Even should Guelda win at first, which seemed 
doubtful, there might be appeal after appeal, difficul- 
ties upon difficulties. 

Remembering his slender purse and that his 
promised wife was absolutely penniless, little wonder 
that poor Ronald indeed wished with all his heart 
for Islay’s return bringing some certainty with him. 

But where was Islay ? No news — no letters had 
come from him since the mere tidings that he had 
safely landed in Australia — never a word. Even 
assuming that he had at once started on his journey, 
and then discovered all he needed, yet somehow or 
other he must have missed several mails. Three 
steamers had come in without tidings. After making 
all reasonable allowance for his silence, these his best 
friends were growing secretly uneasy. What could 
be the matter? 


THE Eli EARS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


301 


CHAPTER XLI. 

A f£w days after Julie’s attempted abduction and 
Lady Ermyntrude Gamble’s arrival in town, the 
guests in Islay House were gathered in Lady Grizel’s 
cheerful boudoir, where she only received her most 
special friends. 

The five o’clock tea-table was as tempting as usual, 
with its snowy damask, hissing urn, its dainties of 
tea-cakes, and forced strawberries glowing in a rare 
basket of old Dresden. Yet there was a weight on 
the spirits of the little party of four assembled there. 

More than ever, this sunshiny evening of passing 
April, they felt that some one was wanting. Where 
was the master of the house ? At moments it seemed 
painfully to Ronald— to Guelda — that they two had 
hardly a right to sit there, happy together, and he 
away on the wild ocean, who knew where, on their 
errand ; journeying to make them happy. No such 
compunctions were of course felt by Lady Grizel. 

“ Islay only did his duty as a man — as a friend,” 
she declared, with a lofty wave of the hand, when 
Guelda confided the thoughts that were troubling her 
heart, which last was very tender, over the absent 
friend. 

“Yet I do wish he would come back,” continued 
Islay’s sister. “ This storm frets one to read of. A 
man can but die once, and let him do it bravely ; but, 
if he’s alive, he ought to say so, and not give other 
people sorrow and worry for nothing.” 

Thus only did she let escape some hint of the 
anxieties that were in her own mind. Some other 
vessels had come in reporting a hurricane three 
weeks ago in the track of the returning Australian 


302 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


mail -steamer by which Islay might be expected ; and, 
what was worse, the latter ship was not reported from 
the stations it should have reached. It was several 
days overdue. 

A slight stir — a faint hum of voices from the 
entrance hall, sounding up the great stairs, penetrated 
though subdued to a murmur into the hush of the 
luxurious boudoir, where generally every sound was 
deadened by thick piled carpets and silken door- 
hangings gorgeously embroidered. 

“ What can that be ? ” said Lady Grizel, with irri- 
tation. “ Now that Islay is away, those servants are 
really too ” 

The door opened, and the old house-steward came 
in with a strangely hesitating manner. He had been 
all his life in the service of the Islay family ; he had 
been born one of their household and clan, and felt 
himself, and was considered, as a member, however 
humble, of the family itself. But never before had 
his voice so faltered in the presence of an Airlie, nor 
his manner shown such deep respect. 

“ My lady, I have come to say that his grace — that 
the duke has arrived, and wishes to see you.” 

“ The duke ! What — Islay ? ” Lady Grizel almost 
screamed, springing to her feet, half believing — yet, 
no ! Islay would have hastened upstairs. 

“ Ay, Islay himself — he is come back ! ” said the 
old servant slowly. 

“ Why do you not speak quicker ? Where is he ? 
Why did no one tell me ? Why does he not come 
up to me ? ” uttered Grizel, with flashing eyes, feeling 
inclined to seize and shake the old steward, but pre- 
paring instead to dart breathless from the room. 

Another form blocked the doorway, and putting 
out a strong arm, would not allow her to pass. 
Recoiling in anger, she recognised Islay’s foster- 
brother and valet, his most faithful personal attendant 
who never quitted his master, and had been taken by 
him to Australia. 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


303 


“Fergus, stand aside! What do you mean by 
presuming to stop me? You are keeping me from 
the duke — do you hear ? ” she cried in anger, yet with 
a sort of fear, as she looked at the grave, stern, 
Scotch face looking down upon her, the stolid arm 
still barring rigorously her exit. 

“ He sent me,” came in slow, surely pitying accents. 
M He’s just tired, and is resting a bit below-stairs, 
your ladyship. We have had a very bad passage, 
though the Lord be praised who kept our lives ! But 
there were a good many on board who came sorely 
off in a shipwreck ; and Islay, he was hurt too. He 
bid me tell you it is something in the nature of a 
sprain.” 

Lady Grizel flew breathless down the great stairs, 
followed closely by the others, who were exchanging 
looks and murmurs of questioning anxiety. On a 
sofa with his back to the light, her brother was lying 
propped up with cushions and wearing a rough sailor 
dress and peaked cap. 

“ Islay, Islay — so you are really here ! Are you 
much hurt ? Is it a bad sprain ? What is the matter ? ” 
cried his sister all in a breath, as she impulsively 
embraced him. 

Islay seemed to wince ever so slightly as she threw 
her arms about his neck. 

Grizel drew back to look at him with a momentary 
pang, as if doubting her affection being returned in 
full, but the cheery voice of old dispelled that 
thought. 

“Yes; I am really here. It does do one good to 
see you again, Grizel, looking so bright, just like old 
times. And you, Ronald and Guelda together — I am 
so glad to see you so. Hurrah, I’ve got your papers 
all right ! The real Robert Seaton is dead. What, 
Sir Julian too! My dear friends, this is a true 
welcome back ! Forgive me for not rising to greet 
you.” 

Islay held out his hand to each in turn as he 


304 THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 

spoke ; but his voice dropped slightly at the last 
words from its usual hearty tones. 

Lady Grizel, who was nearest him, looked 
anxiously in his face, that was surely very pale even 
seen in the twilight -made by the stained glass 
windows and Cairene pierced shutters of the Orientally 
furnished room. 

“You are not feeling well, Islay?” she asked 
gently. “Is this sprain very severe ? What is it ? ” 

“ Not more than can be borne, as you see, dear 
Grizel,” returned Islay, looking her in the faee with a 
quiet smile, though there was a pathetic wistfulness 
in his eyes. “ But for Fergus, it would have been. 
We were shipwrecked, and two of the masts went 
crash in a storm ; I was caught by a heavy falling 
spar and some of the rigging, and must have gone 
down with the ship itself a little while later if he had 
not risked his life to drag me out as I lay insensible. 
Then for several days we drifted in boats, till we 
were rescued by a passing vessel. Now you know 
about our perils of the deep.” 

“ And how long do you think it will be before you 
are better ? Have you seen a doctor ? ” persisted 
Grizel, in a subdued voice. She knew her brother’s 
face and ways so well, and dreaded there was much 
amiss. 

“ If it be long, shall you much mind nursing me ? ” 

How quiet was his manner — how unlike the hearty 
almost boyish growls of impatience with which he 
had always hitherto endured any passing ailment in 
his healthy young life ! 

Grizel felt a little cold at heart all on a sudden. 
What illness was coming ? But she replied with a 
brave voice she tried to make as cheerful as his own : 

“ Mind ? Why, I would not mind nursing you 
your whole life long, my dear old brother, if it came 
to that ! ” 

“ I thought so ; that one thought has been my hope 
and comfort through the last three weeks. I may put 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


305 


your promise to the test, my poor Grizel ; but not for 
always, I trust — not to tie your life to a log — too — 
long.” 

The last word came with short gasps ; then Islay’s 
eyes closed, his head slipped a little sideways ; he had 
become unconscious. 

“ I knew well it would be too much for him alto- 
gether ! ” sternly declared Fergus. “ Hush now, 
please — hush now ! Leave him to me. I’ve nursed 
him through the worst, lying in an open boat for 
two days and nights with his head on my knees like 
a baby, and this is no’ so bad. He’ll come round 
soon.” 

And the big Highlander took possession of his 
master forcibly, and began trying restoratives with a 
calm methodical manner, contrasting strangely with 
the faithful anxiety expressed in his troubled eyes 
and rugged, wrinkled brow. 

“ A doctor — send for a doctor ! Ronald, which is 
the best ? ” cried Lady Grizel beseechingly. 

Almost before she spoke, Ronald had rushed past 
a group of gaping, whispering lackeys gathered 
outside in the hall, and was gone himself to do her 
bidding. 

Guelda and Sir Julian were trying to give what 
sympathy and help was possible to both the sister and 
the insensible man. 

“ Canny, canny, my lady ! Don’t fash yourself too 
greatly, or when he comes to himself it will grieve 
him,” implored big Fergus in a whisper. “ Ay, send 
for a doctor — it will ease your mind maybe ; but none 
can say other than what the surgeon said on board 
the big steamer that saved us.” 

“ What did he say ? Fergus, tell me quick ! ” 

“ That the spine is hurt, my lady ; he’ll never walk 
the ground more while he lives ; but let us thank the 
Lord he does live ! ” replied Fergus, with tears running 
down his rough cheeks. 


20 


306 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


CHAPTER XLII. 

It seemed too incredible to be true ! That Islay, 
who was always so strong and active, glorying in all 
manly sport, loving better than all else the hardest 
day’s deer-stalking on the steep mountain-side, never 
weary of carrying a gun from morning to night over 
the wide grouse-moors that he owned for miles and 
miles, delighting in taking himself the helm of his 
yacht during the stiffest breeze blowing — that he 
should be lying stricken there, helpless, before their 
eyes ! 

And yet that his voice should sound as happy as 
before — or so it seemed to the astonished ears of 
those who loved him — while his face, if pale and with 
traces of suffering, yet kept a brave front to them all, 
and showed a genial smile which brought sudden 
tears to their eyes, which they had to turn aside to 
hide. 

“We must keep up for his sake,” uttered Ronald, 
with a sob in his throat ; yet even he almost broke 
down when, with a hearty clasp of the hand, Islay 
congratulated him on his and Guelda’s happiness. 

“ And where are the others ? ” asked the invalid, 
almost gaily now, of Lady Grizel, who stood on his 
other side. 

It was on the morning after his arrival, and he had 
just been carried into his favourite smoking-room, and 
comfortably installed on a divan. 

“Are Miss Seaton and Sir Julian very busy this 
fine day? If not, ask them to come and say good- 
morning to a cripple who cannot go to them. Besides, 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


307 


I am most desirous to display the Australian certifi- 
cates I had such trouble to keep. They were inside 
my shirt during the time of the shipwreck. I thought 
most likely my coat would have come off if we had to 
swim a bit before getting a floating spar or barrel as 
a last resource, and I was resolved to give them every 
chance.” 

Guelda and Sir Julian came quickly. They were 
burning with pity, and eagerness to know all the 
details of poor Islay’s journey and shipwreck. 

The story was a brief one. His voyage out had 
been uneventful, only marked by a quick passage and 
fine weather. On landing in Australia he at once 
started up country to the town near which Robert 
Seaton was believed to have spent his last years and 
died. 

“ My efforts were signally successful,” announced 
the duke with a smile of satisfaction ; “ here are all 
the papers. Hullo, what is it, Fergus ?” — as the faithful 
man-nurse, who hardly ever quitted his self-chosen 
post outside the door of Islay’s room, so that no one 
else should deprive him of the chance of attending to 
his master’s least wants, entered with a cautiously 
gentle tread. 

“ Lady Ermyntrude Gamble, your grace. She has 
asked to see her ladyship, or Miss Seaton, on im- 
portant business.” 

“ The plot thickens. Depend upon it, she has come 
to offer a compromise,” exclaimed Airlie and Sir 
J ulian. 

“If so, have her in here, my dear Guelda. My dear 
Grizel, I beseech of you to let me have some share in 
the fun ! ” cried Islay, with the glee of a school-boy. 
Though so helpless in body and still weak, he was 
smiling with a hilarity that was not altogether assumed 
for their sakes. He had in truth sworn inwardly to 
himself he would be cheerful, and he was rapidly 
learning the habit. 

“We will go together and find out,” said Lady 


308 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


Grizel, drawing Guelda’s arm through her own ; and 
so the two women went out of the room. 

In a very few minutes both came back accompanied 
by Lady Ermyntrude, who rustled towards the duke 
in one of her freshest Parisian toilettes, and with all 
the airs of a faded, affected beauty. 

“ My dear friend, I had no idea you were come 
back ! ” she exclaimed, throwing up her eyes with a 
killing glance as she gracefully sank on a low chair 
by the suffering, man’s side and pressed his hand 
affectionately. “ And Grizel tells me you are an 
invalid just at present. This comes of going after 
big game, you roving naughty man ! I hope it is 
nothing really serious.” 

“ Nothing that I need trouble Lady Ermyntrude 
Gamble by discussing. Probably I shall take your 
advice and not rove so much in future,” said Islay 
drily, with a curious mixture of contempt and pity as 
he looked at the painted eyebrows and powdered 
cheeks of the woman he had once admired in his 
boyish days. “You have come on important busi- 
ness, I believe. May we hear it also, if it concerns 
Miss Seaton, who, as you are perhaps aware, is 
engaged to my cousin Airlie here, while both she 
and he are good enough to have consulted me 
throughout this Lyndon case? You have come 
about it, I presume?” 

“ Exactly so. Lord Lyndon is a friend of ours ; 
my husband and I have a thorough belief in his 
cause,” announced Lady Ermyntrude with a lofty 
air, turning a momentary glance of cool disdain on 
Guelda and Ronald Airlie, who were standing side 
by side. She evidently looked upon them both as 
mere adventurers seeking to enrich themselves un- 
righteously, but was deterred by politeness from 
giving words to her thoughts. “ I consider Lord 
Lyndon a most high-principled, kindly-meaning man, 
in spite of some little weaknesses, and one who is 
im worthily attacked,” she went on. “ For his sake, 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


S09 


I am pleased to be an ambassador of peace in so 
unfortunate a family lawsuit. He desires me to say 
that, believing this threatened action originates in his 
niece’s disappointment in finding that her grandfather 
failed to leave her an expected fortune, he can enter 
into her feelings. Naturally, Captain — I beg pardon ! 
— Colonel Airlie — men rise so rapidly in these war- 
times, you must forgive me for forgetting your new 
distinction — naturally he shares his future bride’s 
regrets on her being portionless ; and you, dear 
Duke and Lady Grizel, with your well-known kind- 
ness of heart, wish well to your cousin and his future 
wife, and do not desire your relations to be penniless. 
Therefore Lord Lyndon empowers me to make a 
most generous offer on his part, if this action should 
be dropped now and for ever.” 

“ And what is that ? ” asked Guelda, ignoring the 
cool impertinence of Lady Ermyntrude’s manner 
towards herself, and speaking as the principal person 
in the matter, as was right. 

Lady Ermyntrude looked at her condescendingly. 

“He offers to make you a present of your expected 
fortune — sixty thousand pounds.” 

There was a moment’s silence, which seemed to 
surprise her ladyship, as she saw covert smiles on the 
faces around. She went on with some heat : 

“You had better think well of it. Lord Lyndon 
is rich, and can afford to fight for a long time ; you 
both — excuse me — are not burdened with this world’s 
goods, I believe. Think of the frightful expense — 
the utter uncertainty ! ” v 

“ No ; the utter certainty of success, and that 
without more than the merest form of trial,” inter- 
rupted Islay. “ See here ” — and he laid his hand on 
a packet of papers. “ It may surprise you, Lady 
Ermyntrude, to learn that I have not been after big 
game as you think, but I have just returned from 
Australia, after searching out the incontestable proofs 
of the real Robert Seaton’s death there.” 


310 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“ And you have found ? ” inquired Lady 

Ermyntrude, whose face had suddenly fallen by an 
inch. 

“ I have found he is unquestionably dead. I saw 
and conversed with men who knew him and his 
future expectations of a title and property. They 
saw him dying, laid him in his coffin, and stood 
around his grave when he was buried. Robert 
Seaton had many vices, they said, yet the knack of 
acquiring some true friends. I have brought back 
attested certificates from these men ; and all other 
necessary papers. Finally, I possess his own diary, 
kept by a poor fellow who shared his hut, in which 
Robert Seaton speaks of his own approaching death. 
Your friend will have to restore more than sixty 
thousand pounds, I fear. Do you want more 
proof? ” 

“ No,” uttered Lady Ermyntrude, at white heat, 
rising; “he will have indeed to restore my confidence 
in him. Viper — villain ! Miss Seaton ” — and she 
dropped a profound curtsey — “ I have been grossly 
deceived, and can only hope you will forgive me ; I 
make you my most sincere and humble apologies — I 
can say no more ; ” and she swept from the room 
with a bow that included the others in farewell. 

The following day an event transpired which put 
any further difficulties in the Lyndon case at rest. 
Bauer had disappeared ! After a stormy interview — 
in which Lady Ermyntrude shook the dust of the 
house he inhabited from her feet, and walked out 
in righteous indignation, sending a message to her 
spouse at his club not to return to their late host — no 
one ever saw the pretended Lord Lyndon again to 
their knowledge. Like a thief, he must have stolen 
from the house he so lately called his, avoiding being 
seen by the servants. His flight must have been very 
hasty ; for he evidently had only time to snatch a 
few clothes in a small hand-bag that was missed, and 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


31 1 


about four hundred pounds in cash and notes, as was 
afterwards found. 

“ Let him take it,” said Guelda, gently, almost 
pityingly, when told of this. “ Poor man, it will only 
pay his passage to some of the colonies and help him 
to start a new life better ! We never heard he was 
dishonest before ; perhaps the lesson he has had may 
do him good. Do not let us try to punish him more.” 

Airlie looked a little doubtful as to her hopes of 
Bauer’s speedy penitence ; but he would not do any- 
thing against her wish. And from that day forward 
no one ever heard again of the late claimant to the 
Lyndon title and estates. 

What remains to tell ? On a delicious May even- 
ing, down in the charming country around Sheen 
Abbey, among the wooded hill-ridges and small green 
valleys, Ronald Airlie and his bride Guelda drove 
home. The woods wore their freshest foliage, and 
little runnels were babbling from their leafy recesses, 
so that a sound of running water was ever in one’s 
ears. The land was pale rosy and creamy white, with 
bloom of apple-blossom and pear, against a back- 
ground of aged dark yews. It was “ lilac-tide,” and 
the cuckoo was calling everywhere, and the meadows 
were foot high with juicy grass all besprent with 
golden butter-cups and gay “ ladies’-smocks.” 

As they crossed the last bridge and the Abbey 
came in sight, Airlie looked with glad and yearning 
eyes at the regained inheritance of his forefathers. 
But Guelda looked at him. Then he turned and 
said : 

“ Did you ever hear the legend of our family, dear 
— that Sheen Abbey came to us by a woman, and 
should once more be brought back by a woman ? 
Your gold ring, with the inscription, ‘ Well done — 
well won ! ’ has indeed brought me happiness. But, 
far above her old Abbey and fine estate, believe me, 
I prize their mistress — my dearest wife ! ” 


312 


THE FREAKS OF LADY FORTUNE. 


“ But it is your house and inheritance — yours ! ’ 
uttered Guelda, in a voice tremulous with feeling. 
“ Ronald, think of it only as such ! Otherwise I shall 
not believe the wrong is righted, or that a blessing 
will be upon us.” 

“Well, what is mine is thine; so we need never 
more dispute the point,” smiled Ronald gladly, with a 
light in his eyes as he looked at Guelda sitting beside 
him that even the sight of his long-lost home could 
never have called up. 

Then they drove on through the wooded park, 
where the air was all thrilling with the jubilant songs 
of birds. Out on the steps stood old Hillis, smiling 
with his wife beside him. Both had begged to come 
back to service at the Abbey, now that their own 
dear young mistress was to rule there ; for they did 
not feel too old for work yet. And in the back- 
ground, equally happy and proud of her promotion 
in the kitchen, peeped little Annie, half laughing and 
crying. 

So, welcomed with blessings and hand-in-hand, 
Ronald Airlie and Guelda his wife entered their 
home. 

At the same hour Lady Grizel stood by Islay’s side 
with her hand laid lovingly on her brother’s shoulder. 

“ They have arrived by now, God bless them ! ” 
said Islay, glancing at a clock. Then his eyes 
travelled back to his sister. “ You and I are left 
together, dear ; but some day I hope to see you with 
a better companion than a crippled brother, though 
you will hardly find more grateful love than his for 
all your care.” 

“ I wish for none better — none dearer,” answered 
Grizel, with all her heart, and solemnly ; “ you and I 
together, Islay.” 

And she meant it. 


THE END. 


UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY’S 


Announcements 

AND 

New Publications. 


%* The books mentioned in this List can 
be obtained to order by any Book- 
seller if not in stocky or will be sent 
by the Publisher post free on receipt 
of price. 


LOVELL’S INTERNATIONAL SERIES. 


00, BprfTg XaOE - • - By “ The Duchess” 

“ April’s Lady ” is the best thing that *' The Duchess ” has 
done. Her superb feminine disregard for the reasons of things is 
less apparent than in other of her stories. She has also succeeded 
in mastering the Irish dialect. — Exchange. 

CLOTH, $ 1 . 00 . PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS. 


91. Dtolet IPgVtan, /lb. ff. 1b. • By May Crommelin 

A stirring tale of English country life. The thrilling descrip- 
tions of fox hunts will afford many an hour’s pleasure to the lovers 
of the sport aside for the great interest in the plot and the strong 
but lovely character of the beautiful “ M. F. H.” 

CLOTH, $ 1 . 00 . PAPER COVER, SO CENTS. 

02. 3 Tgfloman Of tbe Motto - By F. Mabel Robinson 

Miss Robinson’s novel is a story which has both power and 
beauty. There is true pathos in the book, and there is a good deal 
of humor, and brighness as well — and “A Woman of the World” 
must be regarded as an exceptionally able, interesting and whole- 
some novel. — Spectator. 

CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS. 


03. Zhc ffiafflefr Conspirators - • By w. e. Norris 

The novel-reading world is indebted to Mr. Norris for many 
pleasant hours, and his last story increases that debt very materially. 
“ The Baffled Conspirators ” is a delightful book, full of sly, 
delicate humor and admirable portraiture, and the story of the 
conspiracy of the four bachelors and its ignominious failure, is 
extremely entertaining . — Charleston Times. 

CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER COVER, 50 CENTS. 


UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, N. Y. 


LOVELL’S INTERNATIONAL SERIES. 


136. Xa&p /Iftaufte’g /iftanlfl - By Geo. Manville Fenn 

A clever and brightly written novel with a refreshing go about 
it. Its sprightliness is a welcome change from the solemnity, 
yearning and dreariness of some much more high-toned and more 
truly tragic tales. — Glasgow Herald. 

CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER, 50 CENTS. 

137. /Iftatda - - - - By W. E. Norris 

Mr. Norris has the light touch of Thackeray, who guides us 
through three or four generations as gracefully as a well-bred man 
might point out 'the portraits of his ancestors in the family picture 
gallery. — Quarterly Review. 

In portraiture of character and delicate finish of detail, W. E. 
Norris takes high rank among the novelists of the day. — Boston 
Globe. 

CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER, 50 CENTS. 


138. IKllOrmwooD - • - By Marie Corelli 

A story of absinthe and absintheurs, a grim, realistic drama.— 
Athenceum. 

The reader is whirled about like a leaflet amid lurid flashes 
and wild gusts of maddened invective, almost blinded by the efforts 
he or she makes, to realize the tempest which rages through the 
man possessed of the liquid fire. — Kensington Society. 

\ CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER, 50 CENTS. 

130. TTbc Ibottorable Miss • * By l.t. meads 

Delightfully fresh and winning. — Scottsman. 

What we want is a vivid portraiture of character and broad 
and wholesome lessons about life. These Mrs. Meade gives us.— 
Spectator. 

CLOTH, $1.00. PAPER, SO CENTS. 


UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, N. Y. 


LOVELL’S INTERNATIONAL SERIES. 


140. B JBttter JBirtbriflbt By Dora Russell 

A story which, like all Miss Russell’s novels, is conspicuous for 
intricate ingenuity in construction, sensational situation, and a 
vigorous narrative power. 

141. B Double IftttOt By George Manville Fenn 

Mr. Fenn, who produces, perhaps, as many books as any other 
novelist yearly, still contrives to treat new subjects with his fresh 
energy and spirit, and is as rich in invention as if he were writing 
his first novel. 

142. B Ibtbben jfoe - - - by g. a. henty 

Mr. Henty remains one of the best writers of the novel of 
adventure and escapade. The school to which he belongs will not 
want for admirers until Defoe is forgotten. 

14 3. Ulrftb - - - By S. Baring-Gould 

As Mr. R. D. Blackmore wove into one piece the disconnected 
legends of Exmoor, so has Mr. Baring-Gould in his turn given 
continuity and permanence to the countryside stories of Dartmoor. 
“Urith” says the Anti-Jacobin , the latest London Review, “is a 
powerful and ingenious romance.” 

144. JBtOOhe’g Daughter - - By Adeline Sergeant 

This clever novel has a special interest for the time in the 
direct and open fashion in which it approaches the relations between 
capital and labor in London to-day. Miss Sergeant writes with 
knowledge and conviction upon the most important topic of the 
moment. 

145. B /HMltt Of /lftOltcp - By George Manville Fenn 

“ His volumes are always interesting.” — Athenceum. 


JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, N. Y. 


' - 


Lovell’s International Series— Continued. 


). Cts. 

. Whose was the Hand ? M. E. 

Braddon 50 

). The Blind Musician. Step- 

niak and William Westall 50 
1. The House on the Scar. 

Bertha Thomas 50 

?. The Wages op Sin. L. Malet 50 

}. The Phantom ’Rickshaw. 

Rudyard Kipling 50 

i. The Love of a Lady. Annie 

Thomas 50 

i. How Came He Dead? J. 

Fitzgerald Molloy 50 

I I. The Vicomte’s Bride. Esme 

Stuart 50 

A Reverend Gentleman. 

J. Maclaren Cobban 50 

l. Notes prom the ‘News.’ 

James Payn 50 

. The Keeper op the Keys. 

F. W. Robinson 50 

I . The Scudamores. F. C. 

Philips and C. J. Wills. . . . 50 
. The Confessions op a 
Woman. Mabel Collins. - 50 
, Sowing the Wind. E. Lynn 

Linton 50 

. Margaret Byng. F. C. 

Philips 50 

For One and the World. 

M. Betham-Edwards £0 

. Princess Sunshine. Mrs. J. 

H. Riddell 50 


. Sloane Square Scandal. 

Annie Thomas 50 

!. The Night of the 3d Ult. 

H. F. Wood 50 

, Quite Another Story. 

Jean Ingelow 50 

. Heart op Gold. L T. Meade 50 
. The Word and the Will. 

James Payn 50 

Dumps. Mrs. Louisa Parr.. 50 
The Black Box Murder. 

By the man who discovered 

the murderer 50 

The Great Mill St. Mys- 
tery. Adeline Sergeant 50 
Between Life and Death. 

Frank Barrett 50 

Name and Fame. Adeline 
Sergeant and Ewing Lester 50 
Dramas op Life. G. R. Sims. 50 
Lover or Friend ? Rosa 

Nouchette Carey 50 

Famous or Infamous. Ber- 
tha Thomas 50 

R - The House of Halliwell. 

Mrs. Henry Wood 50 

Ruffino. Ouida 50 

Alas ! Rhoda Broughton. . . 50 
Basil and Annette. B. L. 

Far jeon 50 

The Demoniac. W. Besant 50 
Brave Heart and True. 

Florence Marry at 50 

; Lady Maude’s Mania. G. 

Manville Fenn 50 


No . Cts 

137. Marcia. W. E. Norris 50 

138. Wormwood. Marie Corelli. 50 

139. The Honorable Miss. L. 

T. Meade 50 

140. A BitterBirthright. Dora 

Russell 50 

141. A Double Knot. G. M. Fenn 50 

142. A Hidden Foe. G. A. Henty 50 

143. Urith. S. Baring- Gould. . . 50 

144. Brooke’s Daughter. By 

Adeline Sergeant 50 

145. A Mint of Money. George 

Manville Fenn 50 

146. A Lost Illusion. By Leslie 

Keith 5 50 

147. Forestalled. By M. Beth- 

am-Edwards 50 

148. The Risen Dead. By Flor- 

ence Marryat 50 

149. The Roll of Honor. By 

Annie Thomas 50 

150. A Baffling Quest. By 

Richard Dowling 50 

151. The Laird o’ Cockpen. By 

“ Rita ’ 50 

152. A Life for a Love. By L. 

T. Meade 50 

153. Mine Own People. By 

Rudyard Kipling. 50 

154. Eight Days. By R. E. Forrest 50 

155. The Heart of a Maid. By 

Beatrice Kipling 50 

156. The Heir Presumptive and 

Heir Apparfnt. By Mrs. 
Oliphant 50 

157. In the Heart of the Storm. 

By Maxwell Gray 50 

158. An Old Maid’s Love. By 

Maarten Maartens 50 

159. There Is No Death. By 

Florence Marryat 50 

160. The Soul of Countess 

Adrian. By Mrs- Camp- 
bell-Praed 50 

161. For the Defense. By B. 

L. Farjeon 50 

162. Sunny Stories and Some 

Shady Ones. By J. Payne 50 

163. Eric Brighteyes. H. Rider 

Haggard 50 

164. My First Loveand My Last 

Love. Mrs. J H. Riddell 50 

165. The World, The Flesh, and 

The Devil. By MissM. E. 


Braddon 50 

166. He Fell Among Thieves. By 

David Christie Murray and 
Henry Herman 50 

167. Ties— Human and Divine. 

By B. L. Farjeon 50 

168. The Freaks of Lady For- 

tune. By May Crommelin 50 

169. Maisie Derrick. # By Kath- 

erine S. Macquoid , 50 

170. A Fatal Past. By Dora Rus- 

sell 50 

171. Miss Wentworth’s Idea. By 

W. E. Norris 50 



H OTEL. In addition to being favorite in 
Fall and Winter, it is most desirable, cool 
and delightful for Spring and Summer 
visitors. Located in the heart of New 
York City, at Fifth Avenue and 58th and 
59th Streets, and overlooking Central 
Park and Plaza Square. A marvel of lux- 
ury and comfort. Convenient to places of 
amusement and stores. Fifth Ave. stages, 
Cross-town and Belt line horse cars pass 
the doors. Terminal Station Sixth Ave. 
elevated road within half a block. The 
hotel is absolutely fire-proof. Conducted 
on American and European plans. Sum- 
mer rates. F. A. Hammond. 


flURRAT HILL HOTU 



Park Avenue, 40th and 41st r 

NEW YORK. 

HUNTING & HAMMOND. 1 

I OCATED one block from Grand Centrs jj 
L. tion. A Hotel of superior excellei I 
both the American and European plan*! 
occupies the highest grade in New York,- 1 
the healthiest of locations. 

FOR TRANSIENT GUESTS j 

Tourist Travelers, or as a Residencil 
Families, no Healthier or Pleasanter p)l 
can be found in New York City. 

Patrons of the Murray Hill Hotel 
their Baggage Transferred ‘ o and fror 
Grand Central Station Free of Charge. 


L OVELL PlflnONb £TCLE 

Strictly High Grai 

FOUR STYLES, 1891 MODELS 

FOR 

LADIES AND GEN! 

LovelPs BOYS’ and GIRLS’ Safe! 

Price, $35. 

BICYCLE CATALOGUE FREE. 

JOHN P. LOVELL ARMS C 

MANUFACTURERS, 

147 Washington Stree^ 

BOSTON, MJ 

Everybody’s Typewriter. * For Young and 0! 

Price, $15.00 and $20.00. 

LIVE AGENTS WANTED. SEND FOR FULL PARTICULARS. 

Send 6c. in Stamps for 1 00 Page Illustrated Sporting Goods Catalo 

















t- 




V 

o O x 

° / % 

■ " * ;T, * ° A cP 

V* * ^ 0 /' S? O' S S f Jy *Q 

*■ ;g * -v x ^ ^ ^ 

•<-* -'A *3r fe ^ v< 



o -71 







v .'A *3 

%<£ - 



O ^ NK ^ > * o ► 

.' o *. *»*•’ / 

'/ CV V * t * 0 


* '<V * v 


© 

* ‘V .>> w» 

N - r >V 

S x\ V V . B ^ 7 « * * * A° 

% V . <* v * 4 O fy 

- ^ ° • 
^ r ,' - *0 o' 



^ ,\ x 


" J ^ * 



'^.ss N ' 

P V 


V v b '"a, ci- r -z^' 0 

c* V > , 0 > s s**/ 

V- V, r „<§.'! . V. - V 

^ <<$> 2 ° 

1 : <? • - WT - ^ ^ o ^ 

'■V ■P‘, j 


-> *'. ^ -i. - o' 

* \y 


V 


•'„«,* \ 6 ' ”C *'Y*^ A ^o,x 

°- o° yylLy °o 


O 




O' 



‘"^z^/T/fc^’ V v * / v\\ s \ V* 'X. 

C^V £■ ^ A O y V', v - $ oj 

* , , T » lO" o » , 0 ’ > ft v - 

»'•• '^. N A »' *0 


r ‘ ^ 

V " / 

-/ ' vr />' 


'■> ■>>■. v 


, ' S s ' ,\ 

V « T- 1 fl -? 



) V S 




'~0 \ <&‘ 'P' * a , -V » 

- > h •> N 0 V X ^ 0 S ^ * ♦ ty 

'/ C* V * /■ ^ j.v v - J/ 

+ « 51 % ^ 


C, 

^ «> 


/' '\ l 


0 * x 


z: 

*©.'"* V ’/c^ 0 ^/V /# * '' , ^>\* vl, « .% 

C \ 8 J 5 &U^ V \ *X* ^ 

; *^v ;i »- ,y oo^ 

>0 o. 





^ r\ 
x 0 




• v» </ 

'V 

A *\ ^ <r ■^ , v, 

o . 7W1 . -t/> aV ^ 

cf> 4 ^V « 


* 3 N 0 ' \^' 

\> * ' * °/- 
r- 5 i 


* V .r\ 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

















